第六十四章
无为无失
原文
其安易持，其未兆易谋；其脆易泮，其微易散。为之于未有，治之于未乱。合抱之木，生于毫末；九层之台，起于累土；千里之行，始于足下。为者败之，执者失之。是以圣人无为故无败，无执故无失。民之从事，常于几成而败之。慎终如始，则无败事。是以圣人欲不欲，不贵难得之货，学不学，复众人之所过，以辅万物之自然而不敢为。
英译
No Interference, No Loss
It is easy to maintain the situation when it is stable,
and it is easy to plan an event when there is no sign of it.
Things are easy to dissolve when they are fragile;
things are easy to lose when they are subtle.
Get ready before things happen.
Make preparations for a disaster that is to occur.
The big tree grows from the tiny bud;
the nine-storey platform is built from a small pile of soil;
the journey of thousands of miles starts from the first step.
Those who act indiscriminately will meet failure,
and those who hold something by force will ruin it.
Therefore, the sages do not do whatever they want to,
and so they do not meet failure.
Because they do not cling to anything,
they do not suffer losses.
In doing things, they always fail on the verge of success,
so when things are almost finished,
they should be as careful as they were at the beginning,
and in this way, they can do everything.
Therefore, the sages with the divine law pursue
what others do not pursue,
desire for nothing that is hard to obtain,
learn what others do not learn,
remedy the mistakes often made by others,
and follow the nature of all things without intervention.
说明
1. “千里之行，始于足下”的英译
“千里之行，始于足下”是一个耳熟能详、朗朗上口的名句，表达了“远大的目标必须从眼前脚踏实地的小事做起”。我们来看看各大译本对这个名句的译法有何不同：
许渊冲译作“A thousand mile journey begins with the first step.”。
辜正坤译作“A journey of a thousand li starts from beneath one’s feet.”采用了完全的直译手法，保留了原文特色，将千里之“里”译为拼音“li”。
Arthur Waley则译作“The journey of a thousand leagues began with what was under the feet.”，Arthur在用词上与众不同的是千里之行中的“里”译成了“league”，“league”是古代测量距离的单位“里格”，一里格等于4.8公里，这个用词虽然要保留古文之风貌，实在是太偏僻了。
我们的译本“the journey of thousands of miles starts from the first step.”，与许渊冲译本不同的是我们的“千里之行”译作“the journey of thousands of miles”，因为我们理解的千里并不指具体的一千里，而是“千里之遥，极远”的行程。
2. “不贵难得之货”的英译
我们理解的“不贵难得之货”意为“不稀罕难以得到的货物”，故译作“desire for nothing that is hard to obtain”。许渊冲的译文表述为“he never values what is hard to get”，即“不看重难以得到的东西”。辜正坤译作“desire not rare goods”，即“不渴望稀有难得的物品”。而Arthur Waley则从商品经济立意，将其译作“set no store by products difficult to get”，即“不看重难以获得的商品”。以上四个译本，虽然用词不同，终究殊途同归。