Sunday, April 3, 2011

Line by Line - Verse 26, Line 9

if he proceed to active movement, he will lose his throne.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

To be restless is to lose one's control.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

To be restless is to lose one's mastery
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

If you act recklessly, you lose your self-control.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
While Ron Hogan's rendition is a loose paraphrase, I still think it captures the basic idea fairly well. When we choose not to face life's adversities with calm resolve, it makes it very difficult to see all the possibilities of response.

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

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