道沖而用之或不盈。

淵兮似萬物之宗。

挫其銳，
解其紛，
和其光，
同其塵。

湛兮似或存。

吾不知誰之子，
象帝之先。

Tao pours like water;
useful when emptied.

Deep — like an ancestor
of ten-thousand things.

Soften this sharpness,
solve this confusion,
temper this brightness,
same as the Earth.

Clear like water; might it continue.

I don’t know whose child it is,
appearing before God.