Chapter 4 Dyer
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Chapter 4 Henricks
1. The Way is empty;
2. Yet when you use it, you never need fill it again.
3. Like an abyss! It seems to be the ancestor of the ten thousand things.
4. If files down sharp edges;
5. Unties the tangles;
6. Softens the glare;
7. And settles the dust.
8. Submerged! It seems perhaps to exist.
9. We don't know whose child it is;
10. It seems to have [even] preceded the Lord.
Chapter 4 Lau
The way is empty, yet use will not drain it.
Deep, it is like the ancestor of the myriad creatures.
Blunt the sharpness;
Untangle the knots;
Soften the glare;
Let your wheels move only along old ruts.
Darkly visible, it only seems as if it were there.
I know not whose son it is.
It images the forefather of God.
Chapter 4 Wu
The Tao is like an empty bowl,
Which in being used can never be filled up.
Fathomless, it seems to be the origin of all things.
It blunts all sharp edges,
It unties all tangles,
It harmonizes all lights,
It unites the world into one whole.
Hidden in the deeps,
Yet it seems to exist for ever.
I do not know whose child it is;
It seems to be the common ancestor of all, the father of things.