NICOLE V. GAGNÉ

Reticence comes naturally.

Furious winds last for the morning.

Violent storms last for the day.

What produces them? Nature.

And if nature can’t make them persist                                              5

Then so much the less for people’s talk.

Therefore

When you cultivate your life with Dao, you align with Dao

With De, you align with De

With loss, you align with loss.                                                             10

Align with Dao, and Dao is happy to have you.

Align with De, and De is happy to have you.

Align with loss, and loss is happy to have you.

When you show no faith in others

Who will show faith in you?                                                                   15

***

NOTES

lines 14 and 15: These lines also appear in poem 17.

COMMENTARY

In pointing out the naturalness of reticence, poem 23 shares poem 17’s respect for the deliberation Sages show when they talk. If you like, the first part of this poem can be seen as a dismissal of what people say and a recommendation to focus on what they do – starting with yourself. The second part of poem 23 calls to mind Emily Dickinson’s insistence that

Paradise is of the option.

Whosoever will

Own in Eden notwithstanding

Adam and Repeal.[1]

All you have to do is what she did, remove from your life whatever is not paradisiacal. In other words, align with paradise, and paradise is happy to have you. Laozi acknowledges that a range of alignments is available to us, which brings the subject back to ourselves and our choices, back to the challenge of faith vs. fear, aligning with Dao or with loss. Most of us choose what we know, which of course is loss – always attended by fear too. This absence of faith in oneself and others leads Laozi to conclude poem 23 with the same question he asks in poem 17.

FOOTNOTE

1. Emily Dickinson, “1069” in The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Thomas H. Johnson, editor. Boston: Little, Brown, 1961, p. 486.

Links To:

Poem 24

The 81 Poems: Contents

The Classic of Dao and De by Laozi: Contents

For more on Daoism, see:

Film Dreams: Frank Capra

Music: KALW Radio Show #3, Ancient China in 20th-Century Music

Music: SFCR Radio Show #8, Daoism in Western Music, part 1

Music: SFCR Radio Show #9, Daoism in Western Music, part 2