THE INEXHAUSTIBLE DAO
All over the land people managed to proceed
by following the appearance of the Great Dao.
They were said to progress without doing harm,
while security and peace would abound.
Beautiful music and fine foodstuffs
would make the passing travelers linger behind.
But the way itself was expressed in mere words.
It was dull, it lacked flavor and taste.
When they stopped for a quick look at it,
there was not enough to please the older eyes;
when they stopped and listened from afar,
there was not enough to please the younger ears.
"However, when you start to employ it,"
the ancient master of the old Way assured
myriads of months, millenniums, ago,
"the Dao will benefit the ones under heaven
by its inexhaustibleness."
All over the world hordes continue on their way,
with the creeds of yore and the idols of today.
They still advance with or without doing harm
to themselves or to those different from them,
finding short-term security and local peace.
Trite remain the ideas of the most complacent.
When they discern another way there's not enough
of what foreseeably pleases the wond'ring eyes,
when they stop and listen to it there's not enough
of what predictably pleases the perplexed ears.
How unfamiliar it is taken,
the new Way that is not taken.
And yet, when you start to use it, to enjoy it,
the neutral Dao will benefit all mortal ones
by its inexhaustibleness.
Vinsent Nandi
78.MNW
