Line by Line - Verse 64, Line 11

he who takes hold of a thing (in the same way) loses his hold.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

He who grasps loses.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

The one who grasps will lose
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Cling to stuff, and you will suffer loss.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

There is a song by the group 38 Special, Hold on Loosely. The chorus starts out like this:

Just hold on loosely, but don't let go
If you cling too tightly
You're gonna loose control

In my infrequent series, Pop Culture Tao, I wrote about this song. Rather than repeat myself, check out the post from July 2010. If you'd like to hear the song for yourself, go here.

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