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The Real Human Beings
Inspired by the Wen-Tzu
The real human beings arise
with the sun.
They sleep when it's dark.
All day long they move or sit,
eat or work,
without strain, as the wind
moves
the saplings;
as a river wears down rock;
so too does their action speak
of
what is natural.
Intellectuals cannot sway them,
Soldiers do not impress them.
Lacking any difference between
without and within, they
remain in their purity.
Regarding energy as greater
than
ideas, they speak little:
for strength is easy to lose
and
difficult to gain.
Insects do not sting them,
Nor snakes bite,
Nor animals attack.
Their muscles are weak,
their bones flexible:
Yet their virtue is strong.
The real human beings care
not
for pleasure;
all things are the same to
them.
Not craving happiness, never
are they unhappy.
Adhering to emptiness, they
have
room for great fulfillment.
Not craving entertainment,
never are they bored.
Their children grow up without
hearing
the tones of music,
The forest is their music.
They live without the bright
garlands
of the festivals:
The clouds are their garlands.
The movement of the stars
is continuous and never exhausted:
so too they are strong and
untiring.
When the people of the towns
come by,
they wonder.
The real human beings seem
childlike and confused
"We must return and educate
the
poor wretches"
Yet when they return with their
books
and laws, the real human beings
have gone.
They move with the Tao, therefore
are everlasting.
Thus they remain forever.
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