絕學無憂。
唯之與阿；
相去幾何。
善之與惡；
相去若何？
人之所畏不可不畏；荒兮其未央哉！
1. 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)!
衆人熙熙；如享太牢，如春登臺。我獨泊兮其未兆。如嬰兒之未孩。儽儽兮若無所歸。衆人皆有餘。而我獨若遺。我愚人之心也哉；沌沌兮。
俗人昭昭，我獨昏昏。俗人察察，我獨悶悶。澹兮其若海，飂兮若無止。衆人皆有以，而我獨頑，似鄙。我獨異於人，而貴食母。
2. 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 Dào).
Legge's Comments
異俗, 'Being Different from Ordinary Men.' The chapter sets forth the difference to external appearance which the pursuit and observance of the Dào produces between its votaries and others; and Lǎozǐ speaks in it as himself an example of the former. In the last three chapters he has been advocating the cause of the Dào against the learning and philosophy of the other school of thinkers in the country. Here he appears as having renounced learning, and found an end to the troubles and anxieties of his own mind; but at the expense of being misconceived and misrepresented by others. Hence the chapter has an autobiographical character.
Having stated the fact following the renunciation of learning, he proceeds to dwell upon the troubles of learning in the rest of par. 1. Until the votary of learning knows everything, he has no rest. But the instances which he adduces of this are not striking nor easily understood. I cannot throw any light on the four lines about the 'yes' and the 'yea.'
Confucius (Ana. XVI, viii) specifies three things of which the superior man stands in awe; and these and others of a similar nature may have been the things which Lǎozǐ had in mind. The nursing-mother at the end is, no doubt, the Dào in operation, 'with a name,' as in ch. 1; 'the mysterious virtue' of chapters 51 and 52.