28 - TURNING BACK

Knowing man

and staying woman,

be the riverbed of the world.

Being the world’s riverbed

of eternal unfailing power

is to go back again to be newborn.

Knowing light

and staying dark,

be a pattern to the world.

Being the world’s pattern

of eternal unerring power

is to go back again to boundlessness.

Knowing glory

and staying modest,

be the valley of the world.

Being the world’s valley

of eternal inexhaustible power

is to go back again to the natural.

Natural wood is cut up

and made into useful things.

Wise souls are used

to make into leaders.

Just so, a great carving

is done without cutting.

UKLG: The simplicity of Lao Tzu’s language can present an almost impenetrable density of meaning. The reversals and paradoxes in this great poem are the oppositions of the yin and yang -- male/female, light/dark, glory/modesty -- but the “knowing and being” of them, the balancing act, results in neither stasis nor synthesis. The riverbed in which power runs leads back, the patterns of power lead back, the valley where power is contained leads back -- to the forever new, endless, straightforward way. Reversal, recurrence, are the movement, and yet the movement is onward.