Translation / December 2013 (Issue 22)


Selections from the Daodejing: 11. Worth-less

by Laozi, translated by Michael O'Hara


Thirty spokes together turn one wheel,
but the wheel turns around a hole.

Clay is lumped to make a pot,
but the pot is where the clay is not.

Chisel a chamber in the cliff,
some bounded nothing in which to live.

Do you see it? Matter, a tool;
the empty space what's use-full.
 
三十輻,共一轂,當其無,有車之用。埏埴以為器,當其無,有器之用。鑿戶牖以為室,當其無,有室之用。故有之以為利,無之以為用。
 
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