When the simplest principle cannot be set aside
Then as we may set it down as the law of all things.
Heaven and earth are one and the same,
Listening to one another,
They have a subtle voice.
Faint, brief sounds
Circulate ever around them,
Voice without name,
No music, no sound.
other readings further drafts from the same generation
deeper strata where the meaning thins
the original
1. The Tao in its regular course does nothing (for the sake of
doing it), and so there is nothing which it does not do.
2. If princes and kings were able to maintain it, all things would of
themselves be transformed by them.
3. If this transformation became to me an object of desire, I would
express the desire by the nameless simplicity.
Simplicity without a name
Is free from all external aim.
With no desire, at rest and still,
All things go right as of their will.