Everybody tells me
The great Dao
Doesn’t seem like anything special.
Truly
Dao is great 5
Because it doesn’t seem like anything special.
If it could be like anything that seemed special
It would have become small potatoes long ago!
Truly
I own three treasures that I keep and cherish. 10
The first is called love.
The second is called thrift.
The third is called
Not presuming to stand at the head of the line.
Having love, you can face danger. 15
Having thrift, you can be generous.
Not presuming to stand at the head of the line
You become a vessel that endures a long time.
These days
People dismiss love but risk danger. 20
They dismiss thrift yet try to show generosity.
They dismiss the end of the line
And demand to stand at the head.
This is death.
Truly 25
When you have love
In combat you bring victory
In defense you remain secure.
When Heaven rescues someone
It uses love as the shield. 30
***
NOTES
line 8, small potatoes: I have employed an American colloquialism where Laozi used the word xi, meaning small, thin, petty, disappearing.
line 14: More literally, “Not presuming to make yourself first in the world.”
lines 22 and 23: More literally, “(They) discard coming after (someone else) for being first.”
COMMENTARY
In this beautiful poem Laozi uses the first person to underscore how everything he’s talking about is directly available and achievable for you. Beginning with the common dismissal of Dao, he evokes the imagery of poem 20 and its first-person speaker who’s like some dumb yokel. But Laozi here is not discussing how someone who follows Dao appears to others, and so he is quick to point out that those who require something that seems special are kidding themselves – nothing stays special forever. He then starts to describe his three treasures, and instead of citing the traditional Three Treasures of Jing, Qi, and Shen (see Introduction section IV.2), he lists three more things that many people would say don’t seem like anything special: love, thrift, and humility, the last given a metaphor that is rendered here as not presuming to stand at the head of the line. Anyone who wants to keep and cherish these three treasures can do so – and they should, because not to have them, as Laozi also observes, is death.
Links To:
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
NICOLE V. GAGNÉ 