老子《道德經(jīng)》英譯第二十三章

　　【原文】

　　希言自然。

　　故飄風(fēng)不終朝，驟雨不終日。孰為此者?天地。天地尚不能久，而況于人乎?

　　故從事于道者，同于道;德者，同于德;失者，同于失。同于道者，道亦樂(lè)得之;同于德者，德亦樂(lè)得之;同于失者，失亦樂(lè)得之。

　　信不足焉，有不信焉。

　　【現(xiàn)代漢語(yǔ)】

　　(統(tǒng)治階層)應(yīng)順應(yīng)自然之道，減少政令不擾民，讓民眾自我發(fā)展。

　　狂風(fēng)不會(huì)持續(xù)整個(gè)白晝，暴雨不會(huì)終日不停。這是什么原因呢?是天地使然。天地的狂暴都不能持久，更何況人呢(統(tǒng)治者)?

　　所以依‘道’行事的人，其行為符合‘道’的規(guī)律;依德行事的人，其行為符合德的規(guī)范;違背道的規(guī)律和德的規(guī)范，就會(huì)失勢(shì)于天下。行為符合道的規(guī)律的人，道就會(huì)親近他;行為符合德之規(guī)范的人，德就會(huì)親近他;違背道的規(guī)律、德的規(guī)范的人，失敗就離他不遠(yuǎn)了。

　　統(tǒng)治者沒(méi)有足夠的誠(chéng)信，失信于民就是必然的結(jié)果了。

　　【英譯】

　　(The governor) To obey the principle of Tao’s, do not disorder people with multifarious government order and help them in self-development.

　　The most violent wind can not last for a whole morning; rainstorm can not last for all day long. What’s the reason for that? Heaven and earth cause it like that.

　　Heaven and earth can not be so ruthless and cruel for long time, how much less can human.

　　Therefore the man who acts as the rules of Tao’s, his behaviors accord with Tao, and

　　then, Tao will favor him; the man who acts as criterion of virtue, his behaviors accord with virtue, then, virtue will favor him; the man who violates above two principles, he will leads himself to lose at last.

　　Breaks promise to people make it be inevitable that the governor have no sufficient good faith.