The Tao of Esperanto Verse 1
Tao is beyond words
The Vikid Truth was satisfied. The Tao of Esperanto would commence on this cloudy day. All was calm at the office. He realized his Esperanto skills were not up to the task, so rather than give up in frustration, he used Google Translate. He would translate manually at first but then check against the AI translator. The AI was clearly better but not without its mistakes. So it really was true, it takes two to Tango!
Please read the English text, even if you don’t understand the Esperanto Translation. There is magic about it and if you ever want to even pretend to care about the Truth or get anywhere near it, this poem is a great gateway.
Tao is beyond words
and beyond understanding.
Words may be used to speak of it,
but they cannot contain it.
Tao estas preter vortoj
kaj preter kompreno.
Vortoj povas esti uzataj por paroli pri ĝi,
sed ili ne povas enhavi ĝin. Tao existed before words and names,
before heaven and earth,
before the ten thousand things.
It is the unlimited father and mother
of all limited things.
Tao ekzistis antaŭ vortoj kaj nomoj,
antaŭ la ĉielo kaj la tero,
antaŭ la dek mil aferoj.
Ĝi estas la senlima patro kaj patrino
de ĉiuj limigitaj aferoj.Therefore, to see beyond boundaries to the subtle heart of things, dispense with names, with concepts, with expectations and ambitions and differences. Sekve, por vidi preter limoj al la subtila koro de aferoj, forlasu kun nomoj, kun konceptoj, kun atendoj kaj ambicioj kaj diferencoj.
Tao and its many manifestations
arise from the same source:
subtle wonder within mysterious darkness.
This is the beginning of all understanding.
Tao kaj ĝiaj multaj manifestiĝoj
devenas de la sama fonto:
subtila miro ene de mistera mallumo.
Ĉi tio estas la komenco de ĉiu kompreno.
Notes:
Dispense.
in the phrase “dispense with names, with concepts, with expectations and ambitions and differences.”
Google Translate wanted to use the word “malhavi”.
havi is the verb that mean “to have”, adding the prefix mal- introduces the opposite concept. So if varma means warm, then malvarma mean cold.
The opposite concept of ‘to have’ is a difficult one in English, malhavi would mean to ‘not have’ or ‘not possess’.
I chose to go for the word forlasi, which means to ‘let go of’
liberigi could have worked too, which means to “liberate from”
And That’s