Tao Te Ching: Verse One

A collection of translations of the first verse of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching

Ursula K. Le Guin


Taoing

The way you can go
isn’t the real way.
The name you can say
isn’t the real name.

Heaven and earth
began in the unnamed:
name’s the mother
of the ten thousand things.

So the unwanting soul
sees what’s hidden,
and the ever-wanting soul
sees only what it wants.

Two things, one origin,
but different in name,
whose identity is mystery,
Mystery of all mysteries!
The door to the hidden.
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