Tao Te Ching

Witter Bynner's translation of the Tao Te Ching:

Verse Number Ten
Can you hold the door of your tent
Wide to the firmament?
Can you, with simple stature
Of a child, breathing nature,
Become, notwithstanding,
A man?
Can you continue befriending
With no prejudice, no ban?
Can you, mating with heaven,
Serve as a female part?
Can you learned head take leaven
From the wisdom of your heart?
If you can bear issue and nourish its growing,
If you can guide without claim or strife,
If you can stay in the lead of men without their knowing,
You are at the core of life.

Robert G. Henricks Translation

Verse Number Ten 
In nourishing the should and embracing the One
- Can you do it without letting them leave?
In concentrating your breath and making it soft
- can you make it like that of a child?
In cultivating and cleaning your profound mirror
- can you do it so that it has no blemish?
In loving the people and giving life to the state
- can you do it without using knowledge?
In opening and closing the gates of Heaven-
can you play the part of the female?
In understanding all within the four reaches-
can you do it without using knowledge?

Give birth to them and nourish them.
Give birth to them but don't try to own them;
Help them to grow but don't rule them.

David K Reynolds Translation:

Verse Number Ten 
Can you focus totally on the task at hand?
Can you see and hear and touch you surroundings with an open mind?
Can you disregard your own convenience?
Can you feel and act naturally without obsessing with ought and should?
Whatever change occurs without flying away can you sit on the eggs of Reality?
Can you see clearly enough to know when nonaction is action?
Just offering, however accepted.
Just growing vast while growing small.
Just doing Reality's work.
Recognized or not.

This was what I found on page 6 of the large book Whole World; Access to TOOLS & IDEAS for the TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. The page itself was entitled Ancient Understandings, where three books by three different authors are quoted and cited for translating the same verses. It was hauntingly beautiful and held such great meaning that I felt I needed to share it.