Chapter 20 · Alone Among the Multitude

Tao Te Ching (Legge, 1891) · chapter title added by Learn the Dao

Learn the Dao: a quiet practice for learning the thing that can’t be known.

The chapter’s first line

When we renounce learning we have no troubles.

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This chapter in plain modern English — David Kooi’s rendering ↓

When we renounce learning we have no troubles. The (ready) 'yes,' and (flattering) 'yea;'-- Small is the difference they display. But mark their issues, good and ill;-- What space the gulf between shall fill? What all men fear is indeed to be feared; but how wide and without end is the range of questions (asking to be discussed)! The multitude of men look satisfied and pleased; as if enjoying a full banquet, as if mounted on a tower in spring. I alone seem listless and still, my desires having as yet given no indication of their presence. I am like an infant which has not yet smiled. I look dejected and forlorn, as if I had no home to go to. The multitude of men all have enough and to spare. I alone seem to have lost everything. My mind is that of a stupid man; I am in a state of chaos. Ordinary men look bright and intelligent, while I alone seem to be benighted. They look full of discrimination, while I alone am dull and confused. I seem to be carried about as on the sea, drifting as if I had nowhere to rest. All men have their spheres of action, while I alone seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer. (Thus) I alone am different from other men, but I value the nursing-mother (the Tao).

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Chapter 20, in a second rendering

The Odd One Out

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

Quit chasing more information and watch the low-grade dread go quiet. The gap between a polite yes and a real one - how big is that, really? And the stuff everyone's terrified of - am I supposed to be terrified too? No end to it. Everyone's at the party, lit up, like spring on a rooftop. I'm the one off in the corner, not getting it, blank as a baby that hasn't learned to smile yet. Drifting, no particular place to be. Everyone's got plenty. I seem to have come up short... I've got the mind of a fool, honestly - all fogged up. They're sharp and certain. I'm dim. They know exactly what's going on. I'm at sea, no shoreline in sight. So yeah, I'm the odd one out. But I'm the one still feeding off the source - and that's the part I'm not trading.

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