Translation
When its politics are boring, its people are honest.
When its politics are scrutinized, its people are imperfect.
Misfortune, yet of good fortune its resting place
Good fortune, yet of misfortune its hiding place
Who knows such extremes? It’s not mainstream.
Mainstream turns to strange, Good turns to evil.
The people have been long confused.
Thus, the wise are upright, yet not cuttingly so.
Honest, yet not stabbingly so.
Straightforward, yet not wantonly so.
Honorable yet not gloriously so.
1) his (its; their; they; that) politics (affairs of a family or organization) bored (depressed; stuffy), his (its; their; they; that) the people (civilian) pure (honest). 其政闷闷，其民淳淳。(qí zhèng mēn mēn, qí mín chún chún.)
2) his (its; their; they; that) politics (affairs of a family or organization) examine (scrutinize; look into), his (its; their; they; that) the people (civilian) lack (incomplete; be absent; vacancy). 其政察察，其民缺缺。(qí zhèng chá chá, qí mín quē quē.)
3) misfortunes (disaster; ruin) still (yet; esteem, set great store by) good fortune (happiness) of place lean on or against (reply on> biased, partial). 祸尚福之所倚。(huò shàng fú zhī suŏ yĭ.)
4) good fortune (happiness) still (yet; esteem, set great store by) misfortunes (disaster; ruin) of place bend over (lie prostrate; subside). 福尚祸之所伏。(fú shàng huò zhī suŏ fú.)
5) who know (realize; tell) his (its; their; they; that) extreme (pole; extremely; utmost), his (its; their; they; that) nothing (without; not) straight (upright; main; in the middle). 孰知其极，其无正。(shú zhī qí jí, qí wú zhēng.)
6) straight (upright; main; in the middle) duplicate (answer; again) do (act; act as; serve as; be; mean; support) strange (rare; surprise), good (satisfactory) duplicate (answer; again) do (act; act as; serve as; be; mean; support) demon (evil spirit; bewitching). 正复为奇，善复为妖。(zhēng fù wéi jī, shàn fù wéi yāo.)
7) human (man; people) of be confused (be lost; perplex; fascinate; enchant) his (its; their; they; that) sun (day; daily) solid (firm <frml> in the first place, originally, admittedly) for a long time (long; of a specified duration). 人之迷其日固久。(rén zhī mí qí rì gù jiŭ.)
8) <grm> is (yes <frml> this; that) use (<v> take <p> according to; because of <adj> so as to <conj> and) sage (holy; sacred) human (man; people) square (upright; honest; direction; side; method) <conj.> and (yet, but) no (not) cut. 是以圣人方而不割。(shì yĭ shèng rén fāng ér bù gē.)
9) honest <conj.> and (yet, but) no (not) cut (stab). 廉而不刿。(lián ér bù guì.)
10) straight (perpendicular; just; frank; stiff; directly; simply) <conj.> and (yet, but) no (not) wanton (unbridled; > shop). 直而不肆。(zhí ér bù sì.)
11) light (brightness, honor; glory; smooth; … naked; alone) <conj.> and (yet, but) no (not) look into the distance from a high place. 光而不耀。(guāng ér bù yào.)
Third Pass: Chapter of the Month
Reflections:
I am happy with the loosely literal rendition of this chapter. Again, changing words around doesn’t affect the meaning all that much. It is like rearranging the furniture in one’s room. As soon as the novelty of the change wears off you are back to square one again. Meaning truly rests in the mind’s eye of the reader / beholder. I think translation dangers lie more in any choice of words that actually mislead. Of course, that is probably more a result of translator bias than anything else is. For example, if the translator / interpreter has a humanist bias, that will show up in their choice of words. Naturally, the same applies to spiritual bias.
Ideally, the Taoist worldview is neither humanist nor spiritual… just natural. Naturally, this talk of bias begs the question: “what is Carl’s bias?”. I know our own biases blind us to seeing our own biases as biases. So, I leave it to others to call me out on that one. Perhaps my dogged perseverance to observe the ‘profound sameness‘ between that which appears different, forms my core bias. Of course, this doesn’t feel like a bias; it just feels like true reality. But then, that is the purpose of one’s biases. 😀
So, I reckon that it is better to be confused and vague than to have ‘reality’ nailed down ‘wrong’ (I hope I’ve done my best to confuse). When I am confused, I am more likely to look at the Word for Word synonyms. Half the time that just confuses me more, but eventually ‘profound sameness‘ settles the dust and I see life a bit more simply.
As this chapter points out, all things are connected. Differences are illusionary; similarities are closer to reality. Maybe that is the Taoist bias in a nut shell. No matter which side you choose to take, you will be on the ‘wrong side’ of the way. That experience, over time, naturally results in this…
Honest, yet not stabbingly so.
Straightforward, yet not wantonly so.
Honorable yet not gloriously so.
Second Pass: Work in Progress
Issues:
When its politics is boring… needs to change to When its politics are boring… because this really points to the “affairs” rather than the singular institution of politics, e.g., when political affairs are corrupt, the politics of government is corrupt.
Commentary:
Politics in government is not truly different from the politics, or the affairs, within a family. More simply, what is politics but just the source spring for gossip about the affairs of people. And, just to take it a step further, what is gossip but social instinct in action. The principle of emergent properties come to mind. Layer upon layer resting upon what is naturally so. It is remarkable how we tend to take issue with that which is naturally so. That is how we keep politics interesting. Of course, conversely that means, When its politics are boring, its people are honest. Yes, honesty suffers and hypocrisy rules, yet (alas) naturally so. It is humbling to see how things are exactly as they should be; my ideals for something different are mere projections of my own narrow self interest no matter how egalitarian and humanistic they appear.
Most sitting at today’s meeting find the wording a bit awkward, less like “normal English”. As we are all used to reading D.C. Lau’s translation for decades, I must first take into account how this is the first time reading it worded this way. Then too, a core guiding principle for me each time I translated a chapter was chapter 81’s True speech isn’t beautiful. Beautiful speech isn’t true. I’ve said this before, and I suspect I’ll have to keep it constantly in the forefront of discussion. One source of our ‘blind spot’ is a cultural attachment to word ‘color’. This keeps our observations well inside-the-box I feel. So, finding a middle ground between satisfying our need for some degree of mainstream grammatical norms, yet ‘odd’ enough to jerk us out of our common sensible safety zone is my goal.
Proposal: Luke proposed that we all consider each chapter ahead of the meeting, take any necessary notes, and perhaps how we’d word it differently either in part or whole. That sound like a splendid idea; let’s see how well it gets put into practice. That would work well for anyone online as well as anyone coming to the meeting. All need be done is print out the page for the chapter and ponder.
First Pass: Chapter of the Week
When the government is muddled, the people are simple; when the government is alert, the people are cunning speaks not only to big government but also to small scale governance – from the governance of ourselves, to parenting , to employing, and on up the hierarchical chain.
For me, this addresses the wisdom of taking life step by step, like a journey of a thousand miles, compared to forcing life to conform to my agenda (the ideal of what should be). The former allows me to respond to each step as it unfolds in a simple, honest, and straightforward way. The later, agenda driven approach scrutinizes the steps along the way, and contending with them, I focus on imperfection rather than on that which is naturally so.
The difficulty of imposing our agenda (ideals) onto life is that we will find ourselves swinging more and more from one extreme to the other. The more acutely aware we are of the good, mainstream, and straightforward, the more acute becomes the opposite. Simply put: Our sorrows lie in that which we hold most dear. (These two are the same, but diverge in name as they issue forth.)
We tend to believe that somehow we can have all the good, mainstream, and straightforward, and somehow escape the other side of the coin. I like to think of this as being just another biological hoodwink to get us to act in the world. After all, nature has no need to enlighten us as to how it operates. For all other species this works out well and balance is maintained. Because we approach life with such idealized versions of how life ‘should’ be, we react far out of proportion to what is actually so. Our ability to think enables us to make mountains out of molehills.
Viscerally knowing that this is how ‘it’ is, one can’t help but be upright, yet not cuttingly so;. Honest, yet not stabbingly so; Straightforward, yet not wantonly so; Honorable yet not gloriously so. Seeing both sides of the coin makes it all very easy to put into practice (and downright impossible to do otherwise! , ‘It happens to us naturally.’).