roots | pinyin, English |
氵昆 | shûi water, kün descendant |
[jie, single occurrence] | |
elude all our inquiries | LY |
unfathomable | W1 |
indefinable | FE |
beyoned determination | AH |
three failed means to knowledge | RP |
triply undifferentiated | LG |
need no further inquiry | DC |
[cannot be] | |
fathomed | L1 |
fully grasped | AL |
fully fathomed | VM |
ultimately fathomed | CM |
separated | WO |
inquire into | C1 |
examined to the limit | RH |
made the subject of description | JL |
further analysed | PC |
further scrutinized | AW |
further inquired into | WC |
perfectly explained | PI |
unravel | DH |
completely unraveled | DL |
investigated with clarity | WW |
comprehended | EC |
MWD has 'zhìª ji 至計' for line 8.
W1 also renders 'bù kê shí³' (15:04) as 'unfathomable'.
[hun] | |
confused and looked upon as one | L1 |
confused and regarded as one | PI |
fuse into one | W1 |
interfuse into one | C1 |
intermingled they form the One | WO |
joined in one | FE |
join to become one | CM |
blend and become One | LY |
blend them together and obtain The One | JL |
blend into one | AW, EC |
merge into one | WC |
merge together as one | RH |
merged into the One | DC |
merges into oneness | LG |
bound together to make unity | VM |
construe it as inseparably one | AH |
I weave into one | RP |
combined and conceived as a unity | PC |
combined into one | DL |
blurred so utterly they've become one | DH |
mixed up like rushing water, act as one | WW |
become one | AL |
MWD-A is missing text for 'er wei yi'.
GR drops the 'er' in line 9, and most of the translators ignore it anyway.
[hun] | |
murky | L1, AW, AH, RP |
impenetrable to the eye | WO |
opaque | FE, DL |
lacking clear discriminations | C1 |
mixing freely | AL, LY [note: "muddled," "mixing freely," therefore "easygoing," "not particular."] |
mixing and mingling | WW |
confused | W1, DC |
merged, undifferentiated | WC, RH |
muddled | VM |
dull | JL |
obscure | PC, CM |
turbid | PI |
perfectly shadowy | DH |
mysterious | LG |
chaotic | EC |
MWD-B has 'hun-alt he 渾 [muddy, mixed?] 呵' and HSG has 'hun-alt 渾 xi'. MWD-A is missing this text.
AH uses another variant for 'hun'.
[zhuo, 15:19-20 only occurrences] | |
muddy water | L1, RH, JL, AH, CM, PI, DL, WW, AL, DC, WC |
muddy pools | W1, FE |
murky water | LY, EC, DH |
troubled waters | PC, LG |
troubled stream | AW |
turbid | WO |
turbid waters | VM |
impure | C1 |
MWD-B has 'qi-alt 亓 ruo yu 浴 [bathe?]'; MWD-A has missing text before 'ruo yu'.
confusedly formed | L1 |
confused yet perfect | PI |
invariably complete | WO |
unformed and complete | AL |
a "gathering" chaos | C1 |
undefined and complete | JL |
undefined and yet complete in itself | W1 |
nebulous | LY |
nebulous existing | EC |
mysteriously formed | FE |
formed out of chaos | RH |
formed spontaneously | AH |
formless, complete in itself | JS |
formless yet complete | AW |
formlessly created | DL |
a chaotic formation of matter | DC |
featureless yet complete | VM |
Imagine a nebulous thing | RP |
perfect in its disorder | CM |
wondrous and complete | PC |
all murky shadow | DH |
mingled and ungraspable as bubbling water, and yet complete | WW |
contains everything | LG |
undifferentiated and yet complete | WC |
GD has 'you-alt zhuang hun-alt 又狀混 cheng'; MWD has 'kun 昆' for 'hun'. RH does not comment.
AH uses 'hun', on which is commented that the rendition 'chaos' "puts a negative twist on an idea that is basically positive in classical Chinese". RP has standard text.