tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 05 07:40:54 2003
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Tao Te Ching Chp. 41
- From: "Agnieszka Solska" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Tao Te Ching Chp. 41
- Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 13:47:58 +0000
41K
mIw'a' QoyDI' nIvbogh HaDwI' [A]
pe'vIl 'oH pab.
mIw'a' QoyDI' motlhbogh HaDwI'
rut 'oH qIm; rut 'oH qImHa'.
mIw'a' QoyDI' QIvbogh HaDwI'
pe'vIl 'oH nuS.
'oH nuSbe'lu'chugh, mIw'a'na'
'oHbe' mIw'a''e'.
vaj jatlhlu':
Hurghlaw' wovbogh He [C].
HeDlaw' Duvbogh He.
gheghlaw' Habbogh He.
chImlaw' ghob nIvqu'.
nItHa'law' Dol chISqu'.
yapbe'law' ghob law'qu'.
ngaDHa'law' ghob ngaDqu'.
choHlaw' ghob teHqu'.
veH Hutlh yer tInqu'. [D]
'ang'eghmeH poH nI' poQ laH nIvqu'.
chuSbe' QoQ 'eychu'.
Subbe' Dol pupqu'
So' mIw'a' [E] 'ej pong ghajbe' [F]
vaj Hoch Dochmey je'
Hoch naQchoHmoH je.
41E
When the best students [B] hear of Tao
they follow it with all their might.
When average students hear of Tao
sometimes they heed it sometimes they don't.
When the worst students hear of Tao
they laugh at it heartily.
Were it not laughed at,
Tao would not be what it is.
Thus it is said:
A path that's bright seems to be dim.
A path going forward seems to go back.
A path that is smooth seems to be uneven.
The highest virtue seems to be hollow.
The purest white seems to be sullied.
The amplest virtue seems insufficient.
The firmest virtue seems unsteady.
The genuine virtue seems to be fickle.
The vastest realm is without boundaries.
The finest talent matures late.
Harmonious music makes no noise.
The perfect form has no substance.
Tao is hidden and nameless.
That's why it nourishes all things.
and brings them to completion.
[A] The reason why I did not use the verbs {nIv}, {motlh} and {QIv}
adjectivally, i.e. {HaDwI' nIv} etc., is because I wanted to retain the
internal rhyme: {QoyDI' – HaDwI'}.
[B] The Chinese nouns and verbs are not marked for number or gender. That is
why throughout the whole text I try to use gender-neutral forms, such as
{ghaH} in Klingon and "they" in English even if they do not really match.
[C] In this section I use {–bogh} clauses to modify the noun {He} for the
sake of parallelism: only {–bogh} is possible with {Duvbogh He} so I had to
use the suffixed forms in the other two lines as well.
[D] Most English translations of this line say: "The perfect square has no
corners". Fortunately, the Chinese word "fang" can also be translated as
"place, area, region".
[E] {So' mIw'a'}: I'm not sure about the use of {So'}. Perhaps it should be
{So''egh}.
[F] {Hutlh} would work but {ghajbe'} rhymes with {je'}.
'ISqu'
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