Monday, September 26, 2011

Line by Line - Verse 44, Lines 7-8

Who knows to stop
Incurs no blame.
From danger free
Long live shall he.

~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

He who knows when to stop does not find himself in trouble.
He will stay forever safe.

~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Knowing when to stop avoids danger
Thus one can endure indefinitely

~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

If you practice moderation,
you can stay out of trouble.
And that's the secret to lasting success.

~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
In his own way, I think Ron Hogan captures the essential message of this verse.

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

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are unmoderated, so you can write whatever you want.