Grass and Trees
Translation by Tree Buffalo
When a person is born, they are tender and weak.
When they die, hard and unyielding.
All things in life are like grass and trees, tender and delicate.
In death, rigid and rotten.
This is why we say those hard and unyielding are companions of death.
Those tender and weak, companions of life.
Thus, an army which is unyielding will not conquer, just like the tree that is unyielding will break.
Hence, the big and unyielding stay below, while the tender and weak rise above.
Read some of the first English translations of Chapter 76 here.
