第70章 · 原文
现代白话译文
我的话很容易理解，很容易实行。天下却没有人能够理解，没有人能够实行。说话要有宗旨，做事要有主见。正是由于人们无知，所以不理解我。理解我的人很少，效法我的人就很难得了。因此圣人外表穿着粗布衣服，怀里却揣着美玉。
英文译本 / English Translations
D.C. Lau
My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, Yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice. Words have an ancestor and affairs have a sovereign. It is because people are ignorant that they fail to understand me. Those who understand me are few; Those who harm me are honoured. Therefore the sage, while clad in homespun, conceals on his person a priceless piece of jade.
Robert Henricks
1. My words are easy to understand, 2. And easy to put into practice. 3. Yet no one in the world can understand them, 4. And no one can put them into practice. 5. Now my words have an ancestor, and my deeds have a lord, 6. And it's simply because [people] have no understanding [of them], that they therefore don't understand me. 7. But when those who understand me are few, then I'm of great value. 8. Therefore the Sage wears coarse woolen cloth, but inside it he holds on to jade.
Addiss & Lombardo
My words are very easy to understand and very easy to practice. Yet the world cannot understand them or practice them. Words have ancestors, deeds have masters. Because they do not understand, they do not understand me. Those who understand me are few. Therefore the sage wears coarse clothes but holds jade in his bosom.
Arthur Waley
My words are very easy to understand And very easy to put into practice. Yet no one under heaven understands them; No one puts them into practice. But my words have an ancestry, my deeds have a lord; And it is precisely because men do not understand this That they are unable to understand me. Few then understand me, but it is upon this very fact my value depends. It is indeed in this sense that "the Sage wears hair-cloth on top, But carries jade under neath his dress."
林语堂
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Stephen Mitchell
My teachings are easy to understand and easy to put into practice. Yet your intellect will never grasp them, and if you try to practice them, you'll fail. My teachings are older than the world. How can you grasp their meaning? If you want to know me, look inside your heart.