Line by Line - Verse 39, Line 13

Without that life, creatures would pass away;
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

The growth of the ten thousand things prevents their drying out.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Myriad things, lacking life, would be extinct
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Without Tao,
all life would become extinct.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

I'll take this one step further. If Tao -- the underlying mystery -- did not exist, life would NOT become extinct because there would have been no life to begin with!

Everything we know would not be. Not you nor me. Not nations, forests, rivers and aphids. Not beauty. Not joy. And certainly not this blog.

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