14Decemberдекабря · 14-е декабря
Душа человеческая однородна с божеством.
The human soul is of one nature with the divine.
1. Человек приобщается богу настолько, насколько бог уже живет в нем, и, как говорит Ангелус, мистический поэт 17 века, тот глаз мой, которым я вижу бога, есть тот самый глаз, которым бог видит меня.
1. Man partakes of God in so far as God already lives in him; and, as Angelus, the mystical poet of the seventeenth century, says, the eye with which I see God is the very eye with which God sees me.
From Fragments d'un journal intime · close to the original .
Original · FrenchIl y a une révélation relative : chacun entre en Dieu autant que Dieu entre en lui et, comme le dit Angélus, je crois, l'œil par où je vois Dieu est le même œil par où il me voit …
Johann Scheffler, dit Angélus Silesms, 1624-1677, né et mort à Breslaii, auteur de poésies religieuses mystiques …
Source text: archive.orgIn English · Mrs. Humphry Ward, 1885… each man enters into God so much as God enters into him, or as Angelus, …
… the eye by which I see God is the same eye by which He sees me.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Fragments d'un journal intime, Journal, 1er octobre 1849; Ward's translation, October 1, 1849.
Close. Tolstoy turns 'each enters into God as far as God enters into him' into 'man partakes of God as far as God already lives in him', drops Amiel's hedge «je crois», and adds «мистический поэт 17 века» from the editors' footnote on Angelus Silesius. The saying itself is Meister Eckhart's, not Angelus Silesius's; Amiel misremembered it (his «je crois»). The attribution to Amiel is right.
Translation note. Angelus Silesius (1624–1677), the German mystical poet.
2. Душа человека — светильник бога.
2. The soul of man is the lamp of God.
From Proverbs · close to the original .
In English · Jewish Publication Society (The Holy Scriptures, JPS 1917), 1917The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inward parts.
Source text: sefaria.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Proverbs (Mishlei), 20:27 (first half); cited in Pesachim 7b and often in the Midrash.
The first half of Proverbs 20:27, 'the soul (neshamah) of man is the lamp of the LORD', faithfully (Tolstoy's 'душа' is closer to neshamah than the usual 'spirit'); the second half, 'searching all the inward parts', is dropped. The Talmud quotes the verse (Pesachim 7b, on searching for leaven by lamplight), and the Midrash often applies it to the soul, which is presumably how it reached a Talmud anthology; the words are the Bible's.
3. Услышали раз рыбы в реке, что люди говорят, что рыбы могут жить только в воде. И, услыхав это, рыбы очень удивились и стали спрашивать друг у друга, не знает ли кто, что такое вода. Тогда одна умная рыба сказала: «Говорят, в море живет старая мудрая и ученая рыба, она всё знает, поплывем к ней и спросим у нее, что такое вода». И вот поплыли рыбы в море к тому месту, где жила мудрая рыба, и спросили ее, что такое вода и как узнать ее. И старая мудрая рыба сказала: «Вода — это то, чем мы живем, в чем живем. Вы оттого и не знаете воды, что живете в ней и живете ею».
Так и люди не знают бога, тогда как — живут им и живут в нем.
3. Once the fish in a river heard people saying that fish can live only in water. And when they heard this, the fish were greatly astonished and began asking one another whether anyone knew what water was. Then one clever fish said, “They say that in the sea there lives an old fish, wise and learned, that knows everything; let us swim to it and ask it what water is.” And so the fish swam to the sea, to the place where the wise fish lived, and asked it what water was and how to come to know it. And the old wise fish said, “Water is that by which we live, in which we live. You do not know water precisely because you live in it and live by it.”
So too people do not know God, and yet — they live by him and live in him.
Sufi.
From 'The Parable of the Fishes', in E. H. Palmer, Oriental Mysticism: a treatise on the Sufi… · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedThe sage’s verse becomes a prose answer, and the moral a sentence of its own.
What Tolstoy read · Moncure D. Conway, The Sacred AnthologyOnce upon a time the fishes of a certain river took counsel together, and said, …
… there dwelleth in the sea a very wise and learned fish who knoweth all things ; let us journey to him, and ask him to show us water, or explain unto us what it is.
Ye live in God, yet know him not.
Source text: archive.orgSufi’s own wordsOnce upon a time the fishes of a certain river took counsel together, and said, …
They tell us that our life and being is from the water, but we have never seen water, and know not what it is …
… heard that there dwelleth in the sea a very wise and learned fish who knoweth all things ; let us journey to him, and ask him to shew us water, or explain unto us what it is.
Ye live in God, yet know him not.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. 'The Parable of the Fishes', in E. H. Palmer, Oriental Mysticism: a treatise on the Sufiistic and Unitarian theosophy of the Persians (Cambridge, 1867), ch. I; reprinted by Conway, The Sacred Anthology, no. CIX, Palmer pp. 48-49; Conway (1874) no. CIX 'The Unrecognised' (index: Persian).
The story follows Palmer/Conway closely up to the wise fish's answer. There the sage replies in verse ('O ye who seek to solve the knot! Ye live in God, yet know him not. Ye sit upon the river's brink, Yet crave in vain a drop to drink ...'); Tolstoy replaces the verse with a prose answer ('water is that by which and in which we live; you do not know it because you live in it') and adds the moral as a separate paragraph ('so people do not know God, though they live by him and in him'). Palmer's ironic close (the fishes go home satisfied, 'since thou hast shown us what water is not') is dropped.
4. Для того, кто поднимается мыслью на небо, всегда будут ясные дни: над облаками всегда сияет солнце.
4. For those who rise in thought to heaven, there will always be clear days: above the clouds the sun always shines.
5. Дух божий охватывает наши души, проникает в них. Мы не видим его, потому что он слишком близок нам. И он близок нам не только для того, чтобы мы познавали его, но чтобы он действовал на нас, влиял на нас, сообщал нам свою божественность. В этом великий отеческий дар бога.
5. The spirit of God enfolds our souls and penetrates them. We do not see it, because it is too near to us. And it is near to us not only so that we may know it, but so that it may act upon us, influence us and impart its divinity to us. In this lies the great fatherly gift of God.
From Christian Worship: Discourse at the Dedication of the Unitarian Congregational Church, N… · shortened by Tolstoy .
Channing’s own wordsHe pervades, penetrates our souls.
We do not discern Him because He is too near, too inward, too deep to be recognised by our present imperfect consciousness. And He is thus near, not only to discern, but to act, to influence, to give his spirit, to communicate to us divinity. This is the great paternal gift of God.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Christian Worship: Discourse at the Dedication of the Unitarian Congregational Church, Newport, Rhode Island, 27 July 1836 (Complete Works, London, 1884), The paragraph beginning 'Again. When I call God the Father, I understand that He communicates Himself'.
Close but shortened: four of Channing's sentences in order, with the three between the first and second left out ('All other beings, our nearest friends, are far from us...'). 'He' is made explicit as 'the Spirit of God'; 'too near, too inward, too deep to be recognised by our present imperfect consciousness' is cut to 'too near us'; 'to discern' is read as 'that we may know Him'. Broadbent's Channing selection (London, 1903), in the Jubilee list, is the likely intermediary.
6. Если ты чего-нибудь желаешь, чего-нибудь боишься, то это значит, что ты не веруешь в того бога любви, который есть в тебе. Если бы ты верил в него, то ничего не мог бы желать, потому что все желания того бога, который живет в тебе, всегда исполняются, а ничего не боялся бы потому, что для бога ничего не страшно.
6. If you desire anything, if you fear anything, it means that you do not believe in the God of love who is in you. If you believed in him, you could desire nothing, because all the desires of the God who lives in you are always fulfilled; and you would fear nothing, because nothing is fearful to God.
7. Природа души так глубока, что как бы мы ни пытались узнать ее, мы никогда не будем в состоянии определить ее.
7. The nature of the soul is so deep that however we try to know it, we will never be able to define it.
From Fragment · close to the original .
Original · Ancient Greek… λέγεται δὲ καὶ ψυχῆς πείρατα ἰὼν οὐκ ἂν ἐξεύροιο, πᾶσαν ἐπιπορευόμενος ὁδόν· οὕτω βαθὺν λόγον ἔχει.
Source text: raw.githubusercontent.comIn English · R. D. Hicks, 1925Another of his sayings is: “Of soul thou shalt never find boundaries, not if thou trackest it on every path; so deep is its cause.”
Source text: en.wikisource.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Fragment (Diels-Kranz 22 B45), preserved by Diogenes Laertius, DK B45; Diogenes Laertius IX.7.
A free but faithful rendering: 'you will not find the limits of the soul though you travel every road, so deep is its logos' becomes 'the nature of the soul is so deep that however we try to know it we shall never be able to define it'. The order is reversed (depth first), the roads become 'however we try', and λόγος becomes 'nature'; 'определить' (to define, literally to set bounds) keeps the image of the soul's boundaries.
8. Если сравнивать наши силы с силами природы, мы — ничтожные игрушки судьбы. Но если мы, вместо того, чтобы сравнивать себя с вещественным творением, узнали в себе душу творца, мы сознаем себя несоизмеримыми со всем вещественным миром и единородными со всемирным духом.
8. If we compare our powers with the powers of nature, we are paltry playthings of fate. But if, instead of comparing ourselves with the material creation, we have come to know the soul of the Creator within us, we are conscious of ourselves as incommensurable with the whole material world and kindred with the universal spirit.
From Nature, in Essays, Second Series · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changed“The soul of the workman” becomes “the soul of the Creator within us.”
After Emerson’s own wordsIf we measure our individual forces against hers we may easily feel as if we were the sport of an insuperable destiny. But if, instead of identifying ourselves with the work, we feel that the soul of the workman streams through us, we shall find the peace of the morning dwelling first in our hearts, and the fathomless powers of gravity and chemistry, and, over them, of life, preexisting within us in their highest form.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Nature, in Essays, Second Series (1844), Late in the essay, after 'We cannot bandy words with Nature, or deal with her as we deal with persons'.
Changed, as Tolstoy's own signature «По Эмерсону» ('after Emerson') admits. The first sentence is close ('we are the insignificant playthings of fate'). In the second, 'instead of identifying ourselves with the work' becomes 'instead of comparing ourselves with the material creation', 'we feel that the soul of the workman streams through us' becomes 'we recognised in ourselves the soul of the creator', and Emerson's conclusion (the peace of the morning in our hearts, the powers of gravity, chemistry and life pre-existing within us) becomes 'we become conscious of ourselves as incommensurable with the whole material world and of one nature with the universal spirit'.
Что бы ни постигло тебя, ты не можешь быть несчастлив, сознавая свое единство с богом.
Whatever befalls you, you cannot be unhappy, if you are conscious of your oneness with God.
Translation note. The Jubilee text breaks the italics at the commas; the English sets the line as one.
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