[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.]

It is interesting comparing the ‘It is because people are ignorant that they fail to understand me’ with the more literal ‘Man alone is without knowing, and so accordingly I don't know’. I may well have missed something in my translation attempt, but mine still rings truer than the way it is usually translated. Namely, who is the ‘me’ to which the other translations, like D.C. Lau’s refer? My wording feels more in keeping with ‘To know yet to think that one does not know is best’, i.e., ‘and so accordingly I don't know’. D.C. Lau's 'they fail to understand me' sounds like the 'me' (Krishna) of the Bhagavad Gita. That's is fine naturally; but seems a tad inconsistent with the Tao Te Ching 'voice'.

Why are ‘people are ignorant’? The biggest contributor to my own ignorance has always been thinking that I know. Thinking that I know only props up my preconceptions. Conversely, wondering ‘why, what, when, where, who’ always tends to open up my perception. (Why do all those words begin with ‘W’). Of course, I’ll always come up with some answers, but as long as I regard them as tentative and transitional ‘stop gaps’, I don’t get stuck in ignorance as long.

The sacred person wearing coarse cloth keeps in mind purity reads to me as advice on keeping priorities straight. Keeping in mind anything trumps concern for exterior trappings like the clothes that I wear, or even the things I say (good thing that!). Then too, the Chinese word here is yu (玉) which as we see below translates as Jade, pure; fair; handsome; beautiful. What are these words meant to really imply? I’ve always like D.C. Lau’s ‘conceals on his person a priceless piece of jade’, but that seems to neglect the word huai ( 怀) which means bosom, mind, keep in mind, cherish, think of, yearn for. Yum yum, food for thought. Cherishing beautiful, thinking of pure, keeping in mind purity in a Christian context is straightforward compared with a Taoist context. For example, ‘Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful’ or my all time favorite, ‘The whole world recognizes the beautiful as the beautiful, yet this is only the ugly’.

The more translated:
Our words are very easy to know, very easy to do.
Under heaven none can know, none can do.
Words have a purpose, affairs have a hierarchy
Man alone is without knowing, and so accordingly I don't know.
Self knowing is rare, self normal is noble.
Because of this, the sacred person wearing coarse cloth keeps in mind purity

The less translated:
I (we) speech (word, say, talk) very easy know (realize, notify, tell), very easy go (travel, temporary, do).
heaven below (under) none ability (capability, skill) know (realize, notify, tell), none ability (capability, skill) go (travel, temporary, do).
speech (word, say, talk) have (there is; exist) ancestor (clan, faction, school, purpose),
matter (affair, thing, responsibility) have (there is; exist) monarch (sovereign, supreme ruler).
husband (man) only (alone, yes) nil (without) know (realize, notify, tell),
correct (yes, this, that) use (because of, as well as, accordingly) I not know (realize, notify, tell).
know (realize, notify, tell) I hope (rare, scarce, uncommon), norm (rule, follow) I expensive (valuable, noble).
correct (yes, this, that) use (because of, as well as) sage (sacred)human being (man, person, adult)
by (marker for passive-voice clauses) coarse cloth (dull brown) mind (keep in mind, yearn for) jade (pure; fair; handsome; beautiful).