Let me try and describe a way

By which most future calamities

May be avoided. In the eastern land

There are birds nicknamed Slacks:

They fly low and slowly, as though

They were deficient in strength.

They fly as if they were leading

And assisting one another, and they

Press on one another when they roost.

No one ventures to take the lead

In going forward, or to be the last

In going backwards when needs.

In eating no one ventures to take

The first mouthful, but prefers

The fragments left by others.

In this way the breaks in their lines

Are not so many, and men

Outside them cannot harm them,

So that they escape calamities.

Now look at yourself. Your aim

Is to embellish your wisdom

So as to startle the ignorant men

And to cultivate your personality

To show the unsightliness of others.

You seek to shine as if you were carrying

The sun and moon together in your hands.

Who is able to rid himself of the ideas

Of merits and return and put himself

On the level of the masses of men?

The practice of the Great Path flows abroad,

But its master does not care to dwell

Where it can be seen; his attainments in it

Are to hold the course, but he does not wish

To appear in the worldly show at all.

Always simple and commonplace

He may seem to be bereft of reason.

He obliterates the traces of his activity,

Gives up position and authority,

And aims not at merit and fame.

Therefore, he does not censure men,

And men do not censure him back.

As you can see, the sagely man is he

Who does not seek to be heard of;

How is it that you delight in doing so?