[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.]

'He who brags will have no merit' - and so on - puts the 'cart before the horse', as I experience it anyway. Only when I lack feeling a sense of original merit do I brag. Not out of choice, but out of emotional necessity. I'm just struggling to compensate for, well, basically the void that I sense within. I now avoid much of this futile run around by simply taking the lower position. Why does it take so long to sink low enough? Instinct fights 'me' every step of the way. Fortunately there is a lot of truth to the old adage 'it takes two to fight', even when the battle is between 'me, myself and I'. Note: my final translation puts the 'horse before the cart', unequivocally. The issue boils down to this: would there be a horse even if there was not cart? Would there be a cart even if there was nothing to pull it? Yes and no respectively. Yet the cart often takes center stage in our consciousness. We are drawn to the 'cause and then effect' point of view, rather than to the 'effect and then cause' viewpoint. Nevertheless, every 'effect' is a 'cause'; every 'cause' is an 'effect'. Enough of this nonsense. On to the translations....

The literal translation... where's the horse?
tiptoe (look forward to) not stand (exist, live);
stride not go (be current, prevail).
self see not bright (honest, know);
self praise not manifest (clear, evident; conspicuous).
self attack without meritorious service (merit, achievement);
self pity not long (long duration, steadily, forte).
its here way also say (call, name):
surplus food superfluous (redundant) form (entity).
thing (external matter) someone dislike,
therefore have way not dwell.

Now where's the horse?
What we look forward to, does not exist;
What we chase after, will not exist.
When seeing our self, we can not be honest;
In self praise, we are not self-evident;
In self attack, we achieve nothing;
In self pity, we are not steady;
The way from here views these as superfluous things.
People bicker and fret over such things,
Therefore one who has the way does not dwell in them.

Finally, the horse is clearly in front:
What we look forward to, does not exist;
What we chase after, will not exist.
In lacking honesty we see self;
In lacking significance we praise self;
In lacking merit we attack self;
In lacking steadiness we pity self;
The way from here views these as superfluous.
People fret over such things,
Therefore one who has the way does not dwell in them.