Those who know don't talk.
Those who talk don't know.*

Close your mouth,
block off your senses,
blunt your sharpness,
untie your knots,
soften your glare,
settle your dust.
This is the primal identity.

Be like the Tao.
It can't be approached or withdrawn from,
benefited or harmed,
honored or brought into disgrace.
It gives itself up continually
This is why it endures.

^{---
(*) TS'AO TAO-CH'UNG [Taoist nun] comments:
"Those who grasp the truth forget about words.
Those who don't practice what they talk about
are the same as those who don't know."}

Those who know do not talk.
Those who talk do not know.*

Stop talking,
meditate in silence,
blunt your sharpness,
release your worries,
harmonize your inner light,
and become one with the dust.*
Doing this is called the dark and
      mysterious identity.

Those who have achieved the mysterious identity
Cannot be approached, and they cannot
      be alienated.
They cannot be benefited nor harmed.
They cannot be made noble nor to suffer disgrace.
This makes them the most noble of all
      under the heavens.

^{---
(*) RALPH WALDO EMERSON says:
"Good is discourse, silence is better and shames it."}

Those who know do not speak;
Those who speak do not know.*
Block the passages,
Shut the doors,
Let all sharpness be blunted,
All tangles untied,
All glare tempered.
All dust smoothed.
This is called the mysterious leveling.
[S]he who has achieved it cannot either be
drawn into friendship or repelled,      
Cannot be benefited, cannot be harmed,
Cannot either be raised or humbled,
And for that very reason is highest of all
creatures under heaven.     

^{---
(*) HO-SHANG-KUNG (an ancient commentator) says:
"The knowing ones esteem walking in Tao,
they do not esteem words."}

They that know don't speak;
and they that speak don't know.
To shut the lips, and close the portals,
to blunt the sharp angles,
to unravel disorder,
to soften the glare,
to share the dust, —
this I call being the same as deep heaven.

(1) blunt (2) what is (3) sharp (4) loosen (5) what is (6) tangled (7) harmonize (8) what is (9) glaring (10) become one with (11) what is (12) dust (13) this (14) is called (15) dark (16) unity

Such a character as this
is equally incapable of familiarity and of distance,
of profit and of injury,
of honor and of meanness.
Therefore [s]he is the most honorable in the world.

^---

Those who know don't talk
those who talk don't know
seal the opening
close the gate
dull the edge
untie the tangle
soften the light
join the dust
this is called the Dark Union*
it can't be embraced
it can't be abandoned**
it can't be helped
it can't be harmed
it can't be exalted
it can't be debased
thus does the world exalt it

^{---
(*) HO-SHANG-KUNG (an ancient commentator) says:
"This is called union with the dark one.
The dark one is heaven."
---
(**) WANG PI [an ancient commentator] says:
"If something can be embraced, it can be
abandoned. If something can be helped, it
can be harmed. If something can be exalted,
it can be debased."}

One who knows does not speak.
One who speaks does not know.

Stop the apertures,
Close the door;
Blunt the sharp,
Untie the entangled;
Harmonize the bright,
Make identical the dust.*
This is called the mystical identity.

Therefore with this person you cannot
    get intimate.
Cannot get distant,
Cannot benefit,
Cannot harm,
Cannot exalt,
Cannot humiliate.
Therefore such person is the exalted
    of the world.

^{---
(*) ELLEN M. CHEN (2) comments:
"The ruler/mystic takes the world back to Tao."
"Like Tao, the ruler/mystic accepts all, blends
and harmonizes all."}