The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of the ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name;
this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.

Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching

Something mysteriously formed,
Born before heaven and Earth.
In the silence and the void,
Standing alone and unchanging,
Ever present and in motion.
Perhaps it is the mother of ten thousand things.
I do not know its name
Call it Tao.
For lack of a better word, I call it great.

Being great, it flows
It flows far away.

Having gone far, it returns.

Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching
Chapter 25

Translated by Gia-Fu Feng  馮家福  (1919–1985) and Jane English (1942 – )
Vintage Books, 1989