第二十七章

尽人所能

Enable People to Do What They Can

Those who are good at driving

will not leave tracks;

those who are good at talking will not have faults;

those who are good at counting will not need counters;

those who are good at locking

will make the door without bolts difficult to open;

those who are good at binding without rope

will make it hard to untie.

Therefore, a sage often saves people,

so they are not abandoned;

the sage often makes the best use of things,

so there are no abandoned objects.

This is the internal intelligence.

Thus the good man can be the teacher of the evil man,

and the evil man can be the mirror of the good man.

It’s foolish of a man not to respect his own teacher

and cherish his role as mirror,

and it’s also silly to think himself smart.

This is the key to success.

1、“善闭，无关楗而不可开；善结，无绳约而不可解”的英译

翻译这句话颇费脑筋。看看我们的译文：Those who are good at locking will make the door without bolts difficult to open; those who are good at binding without rope will make it hard to untie. 在这里我们强调的还是与上文一致：人。

这点我们与辜正坤的想法相同。他的译文是He who is good at shutting renders all efforts of opening in vain though he uses no bolts. He who is good at tying renders all efforts of untying in vain though he uses no ropes. 但句子结构有点过于复杂。

许渊冲与Arthur Waley强调的是“物”，所以译文中句子的主语均为“物”。许的译文是A good lock without a bolt cannot be opened. A good knot tied without strings cannot be untied. Arthur Waley译成了The perfect door has neither bolt nor bar, yet cannot be opened. The perfect knot needs neither rope nor twine, yet cannot be untied.总的感觉是前者的译文大都简洁，而后者的译文大都直接。

2、“善人者， 不善人之师；不善人者，善人之资”的英译

这句话里有一个词的选用令我们感到少许得意，但相信读者能够悟到我们的意思。这个词就是“资”，我们用了mirror去对应，借以表达“反面典型”之意。Arthur Waley的译文: Truly, the perfect man is the teacher of the imperfect; but the imperfect is the stock-in-trade of the perfect man. 他把“资”译成了stock-in-trade，是否欠妥呢？许渊冲的译文更是离谱：Thus a sage is the teacher of common people and the common people are the stuff for good men. 难道在他的眼中，老百姓都是“不善之人”？辜正坤译成Thus the good man is the bad man's teacher; the bad man is the material from which the good draws lessons. “资”被译成了material，人成了“物”？老子的意思是这样的吗？