2:03

非彼無我，

非我無所取。

是亦近矣，而不知其所為使。若有真宰，而特不得其眹。可行已信，而不見其形，有情而無形。

百骸、九竅、六藏，賅而存焉，吾誰與為親？汝皆說之乎？其有私焉？如是，皆有為臣妾乎？其臣妾不足以相治乎。其遞相為君臣乎，其有真君存焉？如求得其情與不得，無益損乎其真。

一受其成形，不亡以待盡。與物相刃相靡，其行盡如馳，而莫之能止，不亦悲乎！終身役役而不見其成功，苶然疲役而不知其所歸，可不哀邪！人謂之不死，奚益？其形化，其心與之然，可不謂大哀乎？人之生也，固若是芒乎！其我獨芒，而人亦有不芒者乎！

Without them there would not be me,

without me there would be nothing to choose. [1]

This is close, but I don't know what makes it like this. It seems as though If there is some true master, I just can't get a glimpse of it. That it can act is sure, but I can’t see its form. There is a fact but no form. [2]

The hundred bones, the nine holes, the six organs all exist together. Which do I feel closest to? Do I like them all or do I have a favorite? If so, are the rest its servants and concubines? Servants and concubines can't rule each other. Do they take turns being lord and servant or is there is a true lord among them? But whether I find the fact or not, it makes no difference to its truth. 

Once you take a complete form, you don’t lose it until the end. Clashing and grinding with things, the race is over at a gallop and nothing can stop it. Isn’t it sad? Your whole life slaving away, never seeing success. Exhausted, sludge-drudging without knowing where to turn for rest. Can you not mourn? People say they are not dead, but what difference does that make? Your form changes and so does your mind. Can you tell me that’s not terribly mournful? Is everyone’s life really this bewildered? Or am I the only bewildered one and not other people? [3]

[1] Does this refer back to the emotions and postures listed at the end of 2:02? That would make for a smooth transition. Or it could refer ahead to the bones, holes, and organs in the next lines. Or some have interpreted it abstractly: "without an Other there would be no Me." The second line is tricky. Does it mean that, without an "I," there is nothing to be chosen? The Chinese leans in that direction: 所 sŭo typically stands for the object of the following verb. It makes more sense to us to read it as "Without an 'I,' there is nothing to do the choosing." I left it ambiguous.

[2] "This is close" to what? Are we getting close to the fact of the matter? Or cutting close to what makes me me, the "true master," which he talks about in the lines that follow? I know I exist and I seem to be able to act, but I can't put my finger on what makes me me, on what me-s me, so to speak.

[3] Near the end of this passage, Zhuangzi says that your form 化 huà, "changes" or "transforms." Elsewhere in Zhuangzi, transformation is not a bad thing. I think that is the key to this paragraph. He is not describing the mournfulness of human life, but the mourning that people experience when they try to cling to a true form, and not just the physical body but the mind, beliefs, identity. This is the mourning that comes from thinking you know your true self, the self he looked for and couldn't find in the beginning of the passage.

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