10Decemberдекабря · 10-е декабря
Один из самых обычных и ведущих к самым большим бедствиям соблазнов есть соблазн, выражаемый словами: «все так».
One of the commonest temptations, and one that leads to the greatest calamities, is the temptation expressed in the words “everyone does it.”
Translation note. «Все так», literally “everyone [does] so”: the plea that everyone does the same.
1. Горе миру от соблазнов, ибо надобно прийти соблазнам; но горе тому человеку, чрез которого соблазн приходит. Если же рука твоя или нога твоя соблазняет тебя, отсеки их и брось от себя: лучше тебе войти в жизнь без руки или без ноги, нежели с двумя руками и с двумя ногами быть ввержену в огонь вечный; и если глаз твой соблазняет тебя, вырви его и брось от себя: лучше тебе с одним глазом войти в жизнь, нежели с двумя быть ввержену в геенну огненную.
1. Woe to the world because of temptations, for temptations must come; but woe to the man through whom temptation comes. If your hand or your foot tempts you, cut them off and cast them from you: it is better for you to enter life without a hand or without a foot than to be cast with two hands and two feet into the eternal fire; and if your eye tempts you, pluck it out and cast it from you: it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to be cast with two into the Gehenna of fire.
From Matthew · close to the original .
The Russian Bible (Synodal translation)Горе миру от соблазнов, ибо надобно прийти соблазнам; но горе тому человеку, через которого соблазн приходит.
Если же рука твоя или нога твоя соблазняет тебя, отсеки их и брось от себя: лучше тебе войти в жизнь без руки или без ноги, нежели с двумя руками и с двумя ногами быть ввержену в огонь вечный; …
… и если глаз твой соблазняет тебя, вырви его и брось от себя: лучше тебе с одним глазом войти в жизнь, нежели с двумя глазами быть ввержену в геенну огненную.
Source text: ru.wikisource.orgIn English · King James Version, 1611Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Matthew, 18:7–9.
The Synodal text, word for word except the older «чрез» for «через» and 'with two' for 'with two eyes' in v. 9.
Translation note. «Соблазн» is “temptation” here, as in the day’s opening; the KJV has “offences” and “offend thee”, and “hell fire” for «геенну огненную».
2. Главным препятствием во всяком предстоящем полезном деле служит всегда соображение о том, что «мы не можем отказаться от нашего положения в свете».
Для большинства людей, пользующихся этой отговоркой, сохранить то положение, в какое они поставлены жизнью или «Провидением», значит сохранить все свои экипажи, всех своих лакеев, все те обширные дома, которые они имеют возможность оплачивать. Я же думаю, что если Провидение поставило их в подобного рода положение, что довольно сомнительно, то оно же и требует от них, чтобы они оставили это положение.
Положение Левия состояло в сборе податей; Петра — быть рыбарем на Галилейском озере; Павла — находиться в прихожей первосвященника. И все эти положения они оставили, потому что сочли это должным.
2. The chief obstacle to any useful work that lies before us is always the consideration that “we cannot give up our position in society.”
For most of the people who use this excuse, to keep the position in which life or “Providence” has placed them means to keep all their carriages, all their footmen, all the spacious houses they are able to pay for. But I think that if Providence has placed them in a position of this sort, which is rather doubtful, then Providence also requires of them that they leave that position.
Levi’s position consisted in collecting taxes; Peter’s, in being a fisherman on the Lake of Galilee; Paul’s, in waiting in the high priest’s antechamber. And all these positions they left, because they thought it their duty.
From Sesame and Lilies · shortened by Tolstoy .
John Ruskin’s own wordsBut “_station_ in Life”—how many of us are ready to quit _that_? Is it not always the great objection, where there is question of finding something useful to do—“We cannot leave our stations in Life”?
But with most people who use that apology, “remaining in the station of life to which Providence has called them” means keeping all the carriages, and all the footmen and large houses they can possibly pay for; and, once for all, I say that if ever Providence _did_ put them into stations of that sort—which is not at all a matter of certainty—Providence is just now very distinctly calling them out again.
Levi’s station in life was the receipt of custom; and Peter’s, the shore of Galilee; and Paul’s, the antechambers of the High Priest,—which “station in life” each had to leave, with brief notice.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Sesame and Lilies (1894 George Allen edition), Lecture III 'The Mystery of Life and its Arts' (Dublin, 13 May 1868), Lecture III, near the end, the paragraphs on '"The work of men"—and what is that?'.
Close, with one sentence left out: three consecutive pieces, in Ruskin's order, one per paragraph of the Russian. Ruskin's rhetorical question ('Is it not always the great objection...?') becomes a statement; the sentence on those who really cannot leave their work ('Those of us who really cannot...') is omitted; 'Providence is just now very distinctly calling them out again' becomes 'it also requires of them that they leave that position'; and 'which "station in life" each had to leave, with brief notice' becomes 'and they all left these positions, because they thought it their duty'.
3. Если не поранена рука человека, он может коснуться змеиного яда, — не опасен яд здоровой руке. Только для того безвредно зло, кто сам не творит злого.
3. If a man’s hand is not wounded, he may touch a snake’s venom — venom is no danger to a sound hand. Only to him who does no evil himself is evil harmless.
From Dhammapada · close to the original .
Original · PaliPāṇimhi ce vaṇo nāssa, …
… hareyya pāṇinā visaṁ; …
Nābbaṇaṁ visamanveti, …
… natthi pāpaṁ akubbato.
Source text: raw.githubusercontent.comIn English · F. Max Müller, 1881He who has no wound on his hand, may touch poison with his hand; poison does not affect one who has no wound; nor is there evil for one who does not commit evil.
Source text: gutenberg.orgTolstoy’s own version · Tolstoy's own anthology «Мысли мудрых людей на каждый день»Если не поранена рука человека, он может коснуться змеиного яда, — не опасен яд здоровой руке; только для того безвредно зло, кто сам не творит злого.
Для составления сборника Толстым были использованы следующие источники: …
«Путь к истине (Dhammapada). Изречения буддийской нравственной мудрости», перевод и предисловие Н. Герасимова, М. 1898; …
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Dhammapada (Pāpavagga, ch. 9), v. 124.
The whole verse, faithfully; the Circle repeats Tolstoy's 1903 wording word for word. Only 'he may touch poison with his hand' becomes 'touch snake venom', probably Gerasimov's Russian (1898), which Tolstoy used for the Dhammapada in 1903 and which was not found online.
4. И никто к ветхой одежде не приставляет заплаты из небеленой ткани; ибо вновь пришитое отдерет от старого, и дыра будет еще хуже.
Не вливают также вина молодого в мехи ветхие; а иначе прорываются мехи, и вино вытекает, и мехи пропадают; но вино молодое вливают в новые мехи, и сберегается то и другое.
4. And no one puts a patch of unbleached cloth on an old garment; for what is newly sewn on will tear away from the old, and the hole will be worse still.
Nor do they pour new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the skins burst, and the wine runs out, and the skins are lost; but they pour new wine into new skins, and both are preserved.
From Matthew · close to the original .
The Russian Bible (Synodal translation)И никто к ветхой одежде не приставляет заплаты из небеленой ткани, ибо вновь пришитое отдерет от старого, и дыра будет еще хуже.
Не вливают также вина молодого в мехи ветхие; а иначе прорываются мехи, и вино вытекает, и мехи пропадают, но вино молодое вливают в новые мехи, и сберегается то и другое.
Source text: ru.wikisource.orgIn English · King James Version, 1611No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Matthew, 9:16–17.
The Synodal text word for word; only two commas become semicolons.
Translation note. Tolstoy’s wording; the KJV has “new cloth” for «небеленой ткани», “unbleached cloth”, and “bottles” for the wineskins.
5. Человек находится в большой опасности, когда он связал себя такими обязательствами с грехами, что освобождение от них мучительно. Сначала человеку стыдно сознаться в своем грехе, потом трудно развязаться с ним; потом делается то, что отказаться от грехов — значит погубить себя в мнении света. Кто не остановится на первой ступени греха, дойдет до последней.
5. A man is in great danger when he has bound himself to his sins by such obligations that to be freed from them is agonizing. At first a man is ashamed to confess his sin, then it is hard to break with it; then it comes to this, that to give up his sins means to ruin himself in the opinion of the world. Whoever does not stop at the first step of sin will reach the last.
Baxter [and Bishop Thomas Wilson].
From Baxter, A Christian Directory · joined by Tolstoy from several places .
What Tolstoy read · Stanton Coit, The Message of ManA man is in a dangerous way when he hath plunged himself into such engagements to sin, that he cannot leave it without its costing him very dear ; it will be his shame to confess it, or his undoing in the world to forsake it. It will be hard breaking over so great difficulties.
Whoever stops not at the first degree of sin, runs the hazard of arriving at the last and greatest.
Rich. Baxter, Works, vol. iv. , pp. 359, 360
Bishop Thos. Wilson, Maxims, No. 653.
Source text: archive.orgBaxter’s own wordsAnd the man is in a dangerous way to this, 1. When he hath plunged himself into such engagements to sin that he cannot leave it, but it will cost him very dear: as it will be his shame to confess it, or his undoing in the world to forsake it, or a great deal of cost and labour must be lost, which his ambitious or covetous projects have cost him: it will be hard breaking over so great difficulties.
Source text: gutenberg.orgThomas WilsonWhoever stops not at the first temptation to, and degree of sin, runs the hazard of arriving at the last and greatest.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Baxter, A Christian Directory (1673), Part II, Christian Economics, ch. XXVI "Directions for declining or backsliding Christians"; the last sentence Thomas Wilson, Maxims of Piety and of Christianity, No. 653. Joined in Stanton Coit, The Message of Man (1902), ch. IV "We may be in danger of moral death", vv. 5-6, Christian Economics ch. XXVI, after "These are dangerous signs of an impenitent, unpardoned, miserable soul" (Coit: Works vol. iv, pp. 359-360); Wilson, Maxims, under "Temptation" (1898 ed., p. 151).
Tolstoy read Coit, who sets Baxter (v. 5, abridged) and Bishop Thomas Wilson (v. 6) one after the other; Tolstoy signed both with Baxter's name, so the last sentence, "Кто не остановится на первой ступени греха, дойдет до последней", is Wilson's, not Baxter's. The first sentence is close to Baxter as Coit gives him. The second recasts Baxter's alternatives (shame to confess it, or undoing in the world to forsake it; hard breaking over such difficulties) as a sequence of stages, "first... then... then", and "his undoing in the world" becomes "ruining oneself in the opinion of the world". Wilson's "runs the hazard of arriving at the last and greatest" becomes the certain "will reach the last".
6. Там, где представляются вещи достойными нашего особого уважения, надо оголить их, снять с них все те слова, которыми их прославляют, потому что внешний блеск способен извращать разум. Потому что именно, когда ты вполне уверен, что ты занят делами, заслуживающими твоего уважения, тогда-то ты и хуже всего обманут.
6. Where things present themselves as worthy of our special respect, we must strip them bare and take from them all the words with which they are glorified, for outward splendor can pervert reason. For it is precisely when you are quite sure that you are busy with things that deserve your respect that you are most badly deceived.
From Meditations · shortened by Tolstoy .
Original · Ancient Greek… οὕτως δεῖ παρ’ ὅλον τὸν βίον ποιεῖν καὶ ὅπου λίαν ἀξιόπιστα τὰ πράγματα φαντάζεται, ἀπογυμνοῦν αὐτὰ καὶ τὴν εὐτέλειαν αὐτῶν καθορᾶν καὶ τὴν ἱστορίαν ἐφ’ ᾗ σεμνύνεται περιαιρεῖν. δεινὸς γὰρ ὁ τῦφος παραλογιστὴς καὶ ὅτε δοκεῖς μάλιστα περὶ τὰ σπουδαῖα καταγίνεσθαι, τότε μάλιστα καταγοητεύῃ.
Source text: raw.githubusercontent.comIn English · George Long, 1862Just in the same way ought we to act all through life, and where there are things which appear most worthy of our approbation, we ought to lay them bare and look at their worthlessness and strip them of all the words by which they are exalted. For outward show is a wonderful perverter of the reason, and when thou art most sure that thou art employed about things worth thy pains, it is then that it cheats thee most.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Meditations, VI.13.
Only the moral of VI.13. Marcus's examples (the dish as a dead fish or pig, Falernian as grape-juice, the purple robe as wool dyed in shell-fish blood, and the coarser one about intercourse) and the closing pointer to Crates are dropped, and so is 'look at their worthlessness'. The kept part is close.
7. Было старцу искушение: мучился он мыслями о том, зачем попускает бог зло в мире. И упрекал он за это бога.
И увидел он сон: видит он, что спускается ангел божий с неба и держит в руке светлый венок и оглядывает и ищет того, на кого бы возложить его. И возгорелось сердце старца. И говорит он ангелу божию: «Чем заслужить светлый венок? Всё сделаю, чтобы получить эту награду».
И говорит ангел: «Гляди сюда». И повернувшись, указал ангел перстом на северную сторону. И оглянулся старец и увидал великую черную тучу. Туча застилала половину неба и спустилась на землю. И вот раздвинулась туча, и стало видно великое полчище черных эфиопов, надвигавшихся на старца; позади же их всех стоял столь великий и страшный один эфиоп, что огромными ногами своими он стоял на земле, а косматой головой с страшными глазами и красными губами он упирался в небо.
«Поборись с ними, победи их и на тебя возложу венок».
И ужаснулся старец и сказал: «Могу и буду бороться со всеми, но великий эфиоп, стоящий ногами на земле и упиращийся головой в небо, не по силам человеку. Не могу бороться с ним».
«Безумный! — сказал ангел божий. — Все мелкие эфиопы, с которыми ты не хочешь бороться из-за страха перед великим эфиопом, все эти мелкие эфиопы — это малые людские страсти, и побороть их можно. Великий же эфиоп это из этих же малых людских страстей возникшее зло мира, то самое, за которое ты упрекал бога, и бороться с ним нет надобности — он весь пустой. Побори страсти, и зло само собой исчезнет из мира».
7. An elder was beset by a temptation: he was tormented by thoughts of why God permits evil in the world. And he reproached God for it.
And he had a dream: he sees an angel of God coming down from heaven, holding a shining wreath in his hand, and looking about and seeking someone on whom to set it. And the elder’s heart was kindled. And he says to the angel of God: “How may I earn the shining wreath? I will do anything to win this reward.”
And the angel says: “Look here.” And, turning, the angel pointed with his finger toward the north. And the elder looked round and saw a great black cloud. The cloud covered half the sky and had come down to the earth. And then the cloud parted, and there came into view a great horde of black Ethiopians advancing on the elder; and behind them all stood one Ethiopian so huge and terrible that he stood with his enormous feet on the earth and pressed his shaggy head, with its terrible eyes and red lips, against the sky.
“Fight them, overcome them, and I will set the wreath on you.”
And the elder was horrified and said: “I can and will fight with all of them, but the great Ethiopian, who stands with his feet on the earth and presses his head against the sky, is beyond a man’s strength. I cannot fight him.”
“Fool!” said the angel of God. “All the little Ethiopians whom you do not want to fight for fear of the great Ethiopian, all these little Ethiopians are the small human passions, and they can be overcome. And the great Ethiopian is the evil of the world that has arisen out of these same small human passions, the very evil for which you reproached God, and there is no need to fight him: he is hollow through and through. Overcome the passions, and evil will vanish from the world of itself.”
Probably from Life of St Andrew of Constantinople, Fool for Christ · reworded by Tolstoy .
Not in Leo Tolstoy as EditorThe legend draws on the Life of St Andrew the Fool, but Tolstoy may have known it in another form.
Original · RussianЭфиопы, имея на своей стороне одного черного исполина, с гордостью предлагали облеченным в белые одежды, чтобы те представили из своей среды такого борца, который был бы в силах бороться с их черным эфиопом, тысяченачальником их бесчисленного легиона.
И вот он увидал спустившегося с высоты прекрасного юношу, который держал в руках три венца: …
Ими увенчиваются те, кто поборает тех черных эфиопов.
Не бойся же его громадного роста и страшного взгляда: он слаб и гнил как подгнившая трава!
Source text: azbyka.ruDetails
A likely source, not certain. Life of St Andrew of Constantinople, Fool for Christ (Vita Andreae Sali), as retold in the Russian Lives of the Saints after Dimitry of Rostov's Chet'i-Minei (October 2), Andrew's first vision: the black Ethiopian giant and the three crowns.
The motifs are those of Andrew the Fool's vision: a heavenly messenger with crowns for whoever will wrestle the black Ethiopians, one monstrous Ethiopian whom no one dares face, and the assurance that the giant, for all his size and terrible look, is weak and rotten (Tolstoy: 'he is all hollow'). Tolstoy makes it a new parable: the hero is an elder who reproaches God for allowing evil; the crown is a single bright wreath; the Ethiopians come out of a black cloud from the north; the giant stands on the earth with his head against the sky; the elder agrees to fight the small ones but refuses the giant; and the angel explains that the small Ethiopians are human passions and the giant is the world's evil grown from them, which vanishes when the passions are overcome. In the Life, Andrew fights the giant and wins. Probable rather than certain: Tolstoy may have known the story in another form (the Prologue, or an anthology such as the Posrednik «Цветник», 1889).
Searched: Brianchaninov's Otechnik (stories of unnamed elders, 95–123) for Ethiopian/crown; web searches in Russian and English for the elder, the angel with a crown and the great Ethiopian; the Life of Andrew the Fool in the Russian Lives of the Saints (found).
Translation note. In the lives of the desert fathers demons often appear as “Ethiopians”, black figures; the legend keeps the image. The Jubilee’s «упиращийся» is a slip for «упирающийся», “pressing”.
8. Ложный стыд есть излюбленное орудие дьявола. Он больше достигает им, чем даже ложной гордостью. Ложной гордостью он только поощряет зло, а ложным стыдом останавливает добро.
8. False shame is the Devil’s pet weapon. He does more work with it even than with false pride. For with false pride, he only goads evil; but with false shame, paralyzes good.
From Fors Clavigera, Letter XLVI · close to the original .
Tolstoy’s version, in English_False shame is the devil’s favorite instrument. He achieves more by it than even by false pride. By false pride he only encourages evil, but by false shame he stops good._
John Ruskin’s own wordsYou are ashamed? Yes; that false shame is the Devil’s pet weapon. He does more work with it even than with false pride. For with false pride, he only goads evil; but with false shame, paralyzes good.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Fors Clavigera, Letter XLVI (Florence, 28 August 1874), Letter XLVI, the passage on what a boy or girl can do ('Is there no garden near you...').
Close, sentence for sentence: 'the Devil's pet weapon' becomes 'the devil's favourite weapon', 'goads evil' becomes 'encourages evil', 'paralyzes good' becomes 'stops good'. Ruskin's lead-in ('You are ashamed? Yes; that') is left out. Ruskin's own words are printed here; in Ruskin they begin mid-sentence.
Translation note. Tolstoy kept the author’s words closely, so the author’s own English is printed here (ruling 1); Tolstoy’s Russian, translated, is in the source panel.
Зла нет в мире. Всё зло в нашей душе и может быть уничтожено.
There is no evil in the world. All evil is in our souls and can be destroyed.
Tolstoy TodayТолстой сегодня · tolstoytoday.org/december/10