The Tao Te Ching

I decided to read the Tao Te Ching again and to try a different translation.  The thing about these beautiful ancient texts is a deficit may arise in the translation of them.  To go from the archaic Chinese to English takes a great level of expertise. Much could be lost based on the translator's interpretations. 

I decided to try this old version from a real expert.  Now I have the added challenge to translate from 19th century English lol.

I will only put a few verses out of the 81 here. This is, of course, Verse One. Just read it for yourself ...see what happens inside you  and tomorrow I will give my interpretation of it. (For what it is worth, lol)

1

The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao.
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.

(Conceived of as) having no name, it is the Originator of heaven
and earth;
(conceived of as) having a name, it is the Mother of all things.

Always without desire we must be found,
If its deep mystery we would sound;
But if desire always within us be,
Its outer fringe is all that we shall see.

Under these two aspects, it is really the same;
but as development takes place, it receives the different names. Together we call them the Mystery.
Where the Mystery is the deepest
is the gate of all that
is subtle and wonderful.



J. Legge(Translator) (1891) Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu. From the Sacred Books of the East, volume 39. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm