The Way Gives Birth, Virtue Rears
The Text
道生之，德畜之，物形之，势成之。是以万物莫不尊道而贵德。道之尊，德之贵，夫莫之命而常自然。故道生之，德畜之；长之育之；亭之毒之；养之覆之。生而不有，为而不恃，长而不宰。是谓玄德。
The way gives birth to them; virtue rears them; matter shapes them; circumstance completes them. Thus the ten thousand things honour the way and value virtue — not by decree, but always so of themselves. The way gives birth, rears, fosters, shelters, ripens, nourishes, sustains, covers. Give birth and not possess; act and not presume; lead and not rule — this is called mysterious virtue.
Reading it
A raising-of-children manual disguised as cosmology. Birth is one percent; the verbs after it — fostering, ripening, sustaining — are the work, and none of them ends in ownership. Mysterious virtue is the credit line that never gets sent.
一部伪装成宇宙论的育儿手册。生育只占百分之一；其后的动词——长、育、养、覆——才是工作，而没有一个以占有收尾。玄德是那张永远不发出去的功劳单。
Support one person’s growth this week with no claim on the outcome. Note what wanting credit would have cost.
这周支持一个人的成长，不对结果提出任何归属权。看看想要署名会让这失去什么。