故其治天下也，如救溺人。
Such a person therefore administers the realm as if he were rescuing the drowning.
見天下強凌弱，眾暴寡，幼孤贏露，死傷係虜，不忍其然。
When he sees throughout the realm the powerful oppressing the weak and the many exercising violence against the few, and, when he observes the orphaned, the weak, the injured, and the abducted, he cannot bear the fact that such things exist.
是以孔子歷七十二君，冀道之一行，而得施其德，使民生於全育，烝庶安土，萬物熙熙，各樂其終。
Kongzi therefore passed through the courts of seventy-two rulers, hoping that once the Way was adopted, enabling him to put just government into practice, the people would then be well nourished, the common folk would live contentedly on their land, all things in nature would exist in harmony, and every individual would rejoice in the pleasure of living out his days.
卒不遇，故睹麟而泣，哀道不行，德澤不洽，於是退作春秋，明素王之道，以示後人。
But in the end, he never met a ruler receptive to his proposals, so he gazed at the qilin unicorn and wept, grieving that the Way was not practiced and that the realm was still unnourished by benevolent rule.
思施其惠，未嘗輟忘。
He then went into retirement and composed the Spring and Autumn Annals, making clear the way of the primordial kings so that people of later ages might see and understand.
是以百王尊之，志士法焉，誦其文章，傳今不絕，德及之也。
He never forgot or put aside his efforts to put his humane principles into practice.
詩曰：「載馳載驅，周爰咨謀。
Therefore, the kings of every age have honored him, and men of principle have modeled themselves upon him, reciting his writings and passing them on without a break until the present era—such was the power of his example.
」此之謂也。
As is said in the Odes, “Racing his chariot here and there, / Steadfastly, he inquires and devises.” That expresses it well.