图8-1 上善若水
上善若水。水善利萬物而不爭，處衆人之所惡，故幾於道。居善地，心善淵，與善仁，言善信，正善治，事善能，動善時。夫唯不爭，故無尤。
The highest kindness is like water.
Water is benefiting all things,
And never compete with them.
It dwells the low place that all disdain,
Hence it comes near to the Logos.
Which is:
To have a low residence of such kindness,
To wish a deep pool of such kindness,
To give a trustful speech of such kindness,
To promote a universal fraternity of such kindness,
To establish a good governance of such kindness,
To build a excellent capability of such kindness,
And to do a timely action of such kindness.
Only when one does not compete with others,
Doesn’t he need to worry about anything.
【解】这一章是《道德经》的核心章节之一，意思很好理解，也很形象，核心的理解在于：“…几于道。居善地…”这里怎么理解，我认为这里实际上是一种解释关系，可以把中间的句号改成冒号，就是告诉我们“道”是什么，就是“居善地…”到结尾这一串。如《河上公章句》的解释就很到位：
“‘故几于道’，水性几于道同。
‘居善地’，水性善喜于地，草木之上即流而下，有似于牝动而下人也。
‘心善渊’，水深空虚，渊深清明。
‘与善仁’，万物得水以生。‘与’，虚不与盈也。
‘言善信’，水内影照形，不失其情也。
‘正善治’，无有不洗，清且平也。
‘事善能’，能方能圆，曲直随形。
‘动善时’。夏散冬凝，应期而动，不失天时。
‘夫唯不争’，壅之则止，决之则流，听从人也。
‘故无尤’，水性如是，故天下无有怨尤水者也。”
但是就是组织语言翻译起来比较费劲，我主要参考理格( "The Tao Te Ching", James Legge, 1891)和林语堂(The Wisdom of Laotse, Random House, 1948)的翻译。这段理格版翻作：“Hence (its way) is near to (that of) the Dao. The excellence of a residence is in (the suitability of) the place; that of the mind is in abysmal stillness; that of associations is in their being with the virtuous; that of words is in their trustworthiness; that of government is in its securing good order; that of (the conduct of) affairs is in its ability; and that of (the initiation of) any movement is in its timeliness. And when (one with the highest excellence) does not wrangle (about his low position), no one finds fault with him.”按照一个国外生活多年的朋友说法，这个比较符合英文习惯，可能是我们这些讲chinglish的不太能理解，读起来太累了。林语堂版把“居善地…”这句及后文翻译为“in his dwellings, (the sage) loves the (lowly) earth...”，加了主语(the sage)成句，我觉得也不是很妥当，还是像我的翻译这样采用并列不定式构成“道”的定语从句，更符合原文意思。把对比于水的“善”加上“such”，和前文呼应。
还有最后一句“夫唯不争…”的“唯”在我参考的两个版本都没有没有翻出来，难道是语气词，我觉得不是，据《道德真经注》 解释说“言人皆应于治道也。”应该是要翻出“only”，并用倒装句。
“歪果仁”看了这个翻译是不是别扭我就不知道了，改天等翻译完了集中请教一下，刚好一个美国客户也在写书，改天和他交流一下，我帮他来翻中文版，请他帮我推敲英文。也请高手们随时不吝赐教。
原创作品，转载或摘录（翻译部分）须标明出处。
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