The Tao Te Ching, Chapter One

Tao flows through all that is natural, invisible
It is the harmony underlying; it has a quiet stillness
Sensed, felt but beyond understanding
Beyond words, beyond names
Beyond thought, to chase it is to get lost
The creator of mountain, forest and river
Light and dark, yin and yang
The wind sings its song of silence.

What follows is one reading — drawn from wilderness, silence, and the questions that outlast any answer. I’m working on a new illustrated poetry diary based on my interpretation of the Tao Te Ching from the perspective of someone with a deep affinity for wild nature, and the sense of peace and harmony that can be found there. Above, my Chapter One.

Below, two more standard translations, both of which I also like. Red Pine and Stephen Mitchell each arrive at the same threshold — the unnamable source — by different paths.

The way that becomes a way
is not the Immortal Way
the name that becomes a name
is not the Immortal Name
no-name is the maiden of Heaven and Earth
name is the mother of all things
thus in innocence we see the beginning
in passion we see the end
two different names
for one and the same
the one we call dark
the dark beyond dark
the door to all beginnings
- Red Pine (Bill Porter), Lao-tzu's Taoteching

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.
- Stephen Mitchell, Tao Te Ching