[Note: I italicize phrases I borrow from the chapter, and link to phrases I borrow from other chapters to help tie chapters together. While making it more tedious to read, the Tao Te Ching is best pondered in the context of the whole.]

This chapter is another favorite. I felt today that it was describing how we truly are. Alas, we carefully keep this becoming, our original nature, hidden beneath a parochial paradigm-parroting facade (oh, that's a mouth full). The jewelry and clothes we wear to 'enhance' our body, the beliefs we ruminate over and over to 'enhance' our mind. It appears that we aren't that content with our original equipment... tentative, murky, vacant and thick. Still, some of it sounds pretty 'cool', eh?... mysterious, subtle, newly made, profound. These 'cool' qualities bring to mind the arch typical 'James Bond' facade that charms us, never realizing that Nature only offers balanced deals. So we spend our lives adoring an illusion, struggling to claim the 'benefits' and escape the 'cost'. The irony is that in doing so we end up losing the true 'benefits', yet still pay the 'costs'. The way that leads forward seems to lead backward. Ah-ha! Fool me once... fool me twice... fool me... how many times till I get a grip on my 'self'?

Here's the literal Chinese as good as I can get it (*)
of ancient adept do scholar, minute subtle black (profound), open (through, whole), deep not can know.
man only not can know, hence strong serve as of hold (tolerate, allow).
prepare as if winter fording river; just as like fear four neighbor;
solemn that is like hold (tolerate, allow); vanish like of ice handle let go, (dispel, clear up);
honest (sincere) that (such) like simple (plain); vast (free from petty ideas) that (such) like valley;
mix (drifting) that (such) like muddy; tranquil that (such) like sea;
who can muddy use of still slowly clear.
who can peace use of move slowly grow (bear, get, live).
keep (maintain) this way not desire be full.
man only not be full of. therefore can conceal and new become.

Here it is after taking some poetic license.
Of old, the adept student became minutely subtle, whole and deep beyond words.
He only cannot be known, thus his strength lies in allowing.
He prepares as if fording a river in winter; as if like in fear of neighbors;
Solemn that seems to allow; Vanishing like ice that melts away;
Honest that is like simple; broad that is like a valley;
Blending that is like muddy water; tranquil that is like the sea.
Who can be muddy and using stillness become clear.
Who can be at peace and using movement slowly rise to the occasion.
Keep to this way, he desires not to be full.
Therefore, only he who is not full can conceal and yet newly become.

(*) Note: words in parenthesis ( ) are some of the tangential meanings so common in Chinese. I include as few of these as possible, other wise it would be impossible to read, I reckon.