56. TRANSIENCE: THE LINES |
6 AT THE BEGINNING:
Along the way one should not self demean
or busy oneself with any trivial thing.
The humbler, the more vulnerable, a positioning
the more one must protect one's inner bearing.
One is wrong if one expects to be finding
friendly reception through joke and clowning.
6 IN SECOND PLACE:
The wanderer arrives at an inn
bringing one's property within.
The wanderer is modest, reserved,
with inner confidence preserved.
When this one finds a resting place
this one remains in everyone's grace.
9 IN THIRD PLACE:
A savage is not behaving properly
meddling in affairs and controversy
thus losing one's place of security.
One also treats one's servant badly
thus loosing the servant's loyalty.
When a stranger in a strange country
has no one upon whom one can rely
things become fraught with treachery.
9 IN 4TH PLACE:
A wanderer that rests in shacks
and obtains property and an ax
One is a stranger in a strange land
...A self defender in hand-to-hand.
Strong and aspiring inwardly...
One limits desires outwardly.
One succeeds in gaining property
but cannot rest in security.
6 IN FIFTH PLACE:
A traveler shoots a pheasant.
It drops at first arrow sent
(This means success, in any event).
9 AT THE TOP:
Imprudence when building a nest:
This images a bird whose nest
burns (a loss of place to rest)
allegorizing one who is heedless.
It is the same case with "wanderlust",
in "letting go", and laughing in jest
giving one's self cause for self disgust. |