Verse 10

This is a rather hard verse to find a translation that really makes sense. A good example of this can be seen in just the first couple of sentences:

In managing your instincts and embracing Oneness,
Can you be undivided? (R.L. Wing)

Can your nurture your souls by holding them in unity with the One? (The Illustrated Tao Te Ching)

In embracing the One with your soul
Can you never forsake the Tao? (Modern Library)

In maintaining the vital spirit
Can you hold to oneness
and not come apart? (Herrymon Maurer)

When carrying on your head your perplexed bodily soul can you embrace in your arms the One
And not let go? (Penguin Classics)

And these are just the first couple of sentences of the verse; you then have to add the rest of the equally confusing version of the verse. I think the Brian Walker version is the easiest to understand.

1.Can you marry your spirit and body to the oneness and never depart from it?
2. Can you ride your breath until your entire being is as supple as the body of an infant?
3. Can you cleanse your inner vision until you see heaven in every direction?
4. Can you love people and govern them without conniving and manipulating?
5. Can you bear heaven's children in all that you do and are?
6. Can you give the wisdom of your heart precedence over the learning of your head?

Giving birth,
nourishing life,
shaping things without possessing them,
serving without expectation of reward,
leading without dominating;
These are the profound virtues of nature,
and of nature's best beings.
I think the lines that are easiest to understand (and I've done the numbering myself) include lines 4 and 6. Line 5 I often found translated as referring to being as the feminine, and opening and closing the gates of heaven. I think the first line refers to uniting your physical and spiritual self with the pathway of the Tao. The second part of the verse I think refers to a ruler who can do things without expecting any sort of reward. The good ruler will help his or her people, but will not consider the people as belonging to him or her. The good leader will help people see which direction they should be going, and not try to arbitrarily force them to go in any particular direction. Overall, this is one of the hardest verses to make sense of due to the widely varying translations.

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