Line by Line - Verse 58, Line 6

Happiness! -- misery lurks beneath it!
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Misery lurks beneath happiness.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Fortune is where misfortune hides beneath
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

and misery lurks beneath all joy.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

When our lives are bound up in the idea that we must always be happy and satisfied, unhappiness and dissatisfaction always are nipping at our heels. In the back of our mind, we understand that if we lose or use up that which makes us happy, we will plunge into an abyss of misery. So, we're never really happy in an overall sense. One eye is focused on the abyss and how close we are to it!

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