Line by Line - Verse 2, Line 10

All things spring up, and there is not one which declines to show itself;
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

The ten thousand things rise and fall without cease,
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

They work with myriad things but do not control
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

When things around them fall apart, they stay cool.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

If nothing else, this line illustrates one of the difficulties with an undertaking of this nature. There are times when the various versions of the TTC order sentences differently and/or reflect different reference points.

As can be readily seen from the 4 above snippets, the first two take this line to be a generalized statement, while the last two reference it in terms of the actions of sages. In fact, in my mind's eye, it's rather difficult to reconcile Derek Lin's translation with that of the Feng & English translation. They seem to be discussing two different things!

There is one aspect of this series I neglected to note in the introduction: How have I chosen to determine what constitutes each separate line? Since, as I mentioned before, the Feng & English translation is the one I personally refer to the most, I am using their translation as a general guide for demarcating lines.

This is an arbitrary distinction on my part. Other translations denote the number and order of lines differently.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.