24Februaryфевраля · 24-е февраля
Для того, чтобы истина была услышана, надо, чтобы она была высказана с добротою. Как бы умно и верно ни было то, что сказано с сердцем, оно не передается другому. И потому знай, что если то, что ты говоришь человеку, не воспринимается им, то одно из двух: или то, что ты считаешь истиной — не истина, или ты передаешь ее без доброты, или и то и другое вместе.
For the truth to be heard, it must be spoken with kindness. However clever and true a thing said in anger may be, it is not conveyed to another. And so know that if what you say to people is not taken in by them, it is one of two things: either what you consider the truth is not the truth, or you convey it without kindness, or both together.
Translation note. «С сердцем», literally “with heart”, means “in anger”, the word’s old everyday sense, as in «сердиться», “to be angry”.
1. Единственное средство передавать истину — это говорить любовно. Только слова любящего человека бывают услышаны.
1. The only way to speak the truth is to speak lovingly. Only the lover’s words are heard.
From Journal, 15 March 1841, as printed in Early Spring in Massachusetts, ed. H. G. O. Blake · close to the original .
Tolstoy’s version, in EnglishThe only way to convey the truth is to speak lovingly. Only the words of a loving man are heard.
What Tolstoy read · Every Day with Thoreau, in The Coming DayThe only way to speak the truth is to speak lovingly. Only the lover’s words are heard.
Source text: archive.orgThoreau’s own wordsThe only way to speak the truth is to speak lovingly. Only the lover's words are heard. The intellect should never speak.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Journal, 15 March 1841, as printed in Early Spring in Massachusetts, ed. H. G. O. Blake (Boston, 1881), Early Spring in Massachusetts (1881), p. 139, under March 15, 1841.
A close translation of Thoreau's first two sentences. The Jubilee list of Tolstoy's sources names 'Every day with Thoreau', loose sheets from an unidentified book; John Page Hopps's monthly The Coming Day printed a Thoreau calendar under that title, where this is July 15, so those sheets were probably Tolstoy's route. Not certain.
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.
2. Говорить правду — то же, что хорошо шить, ловко косить, красиво писать. Это дается только тому, кто много шил, много косил, много писал. Как ни старайся, не сделаешь хорошо того, чего не делал много и много раз. И потому для того, чтобы говорить правду, надо приучить себя к этому. А чтобы приучить себя к этому, надо во всяком, хотя бы маленьком деле говорить одну правду.
2. To tell the truth is the same as to sew well, to mow deftly, to write a fine hand. It comes only to one who has sewn much, mown much, written much. Try as you may, you will not do well what you have not done many and many times. And so, to tell the truth, you must train yourself to it. And to train yourself to it, you must tell nothing but the truth in every matter, however small.
Translation note. Tolstoy’s word here is «правда», truth as truthfulness; elsewhere on this day it is «истина».
3. Мы так привыкли притворяться перед другими, что часто притворяемся перед самими собой.
3. We are so accustomed to pretending before others that we often pretend before ourselves.
From Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales · close to the original .
Original · FrenchNous sommes si accoutumés à nous déguiser aux autres qu'enfin nous nous déguisons à nous-mêmes.
Source text: gutenberg.orgIn English · J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell, 1871We become so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that at last we are disguised to ourselves.
Source text: gutenberg.orgTolstoy’s own version · Избранные мысли Ларошфуко, No. 40Мы так привыкли притворяться перед другими, что под конец притворяемся даже и перед самими собою.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales, Maxime 119.
Close; "enfin" becomes «часто».
Translation note. The Russian italic is broken only at the comma before «что», “that”; it is set here as one span.
4. В сущности, только собственные основные мысли обладают истинностью и жизнью, только их понимаешь в их настоящем смысле. Чужие, вычитанные мысли — объедки с чужого стола, платье с плеча чужестранца.
4. In essence, only your own fundamental thoughts have truth and life; only these do you understand in their real meaning. Other people’s thoughts, gleaned from reading, are scraps from another’s table, cast-off clothes from a stranger’s shoulders.
From Parerga und Paralipomena II, ch. XXII · close to the original .
What Tolstoy read · Julius Frauenstädt, Arthur Schopenhauer: Lichtstrahlen aus seinen WerkenIm Grunde haben nur die eigenen Grundge⸗ danken Wahrheit und Leben: denn nur ſie verſteht man recht eigentlich und ganz. Fremde, geleſene Ge⸗ danken ſind die Ueberbleibſel eines fremden Mahles, die abgelegten Kleider eines fremden Gaſtes.
Source text: archive.orgOriginal · GermanIm Grunde haben nur die eigenen Grundgedanken Wahr⸗ heit und Leben: denn nur ſie verſteht man recht eigentlich und ganz. Fremde, geleſene Gedanken ſind die Ueberbleibſel eines fremden Mahles, die abgelegten Kleider eines fremden Gaſtes.
Source text: archive.orgIn English · T. Bailey Saunders, 1891If a man's thoughts are to have truth and life in them, they must, after all, be his own fundamental thoughts; for these are the only ones that he can fully and wholly understand. To read another's thoughts is like taking the leavings of a meal to which we have not been invited, or putting on the clothes which some unknown visitor has laid aside.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Parerga und Paralipomena II, ch. XXII (Selbstdenken), Parerga II, 2nd ed. (Frauenstädt, Berlin 1862), § 265, pp. 527-528; Lichtstrahlen cites "P. II, 412".
Closely: only one's own fundamental thoughts have truth and life, for only they are understood fully; thoughts read from others are the leavings of a stranger's meal, the cast-off clothes of a strange guest. Tolstoy writes «платье с плеча чужестранца» (a garment off a foreigner's shoulder) for "the cast-off clothes of a strange guest". Lichtstrahlen prints the passage.
5. Если человек сробеет перед истиной и, увидев ее, не признает ее, а будет заглушать в себе сознание того, что то, что он считал истиной, есть ложь, то он никогда не узнает, что ему делать.
5. If we shrink before the truth and, having seen it, do not acknowledge it, but go on stifling in ourselves the consciousness that what we held to be the truth is a lie, we will never know what we are to do.
6. Лучшие умы, любящие истину за истину, не заботятся о присвоении истины в собственность. Они принимают ее с благодарностью везде, где встречают, и не кладут на нее клейма чьего-нибудь имени, потому что истина эта издавна, в вечности уже принадлежала им.
6. The best minds, who love truth for its own sake, think much less of property in truth. They accept it thankfully everywhere, and do not label or stamp it with any man’s name, for it is theirs long beforehand, and from eternity.
From The Over-Soul, in Essays, First Series · close to the original .
Tolstoy’s version, in EnglishThe best minds, which love truth for its own sake, do not care to appropriate truth as their property. They accept it gratefully wherever they meet it and do not stamp it with the brand of anyone’s name, because this truth already belonged to them long ago, in eternity.
Emerson’s own wordsThe mind is one, and the best minds, who love truth for its own sake, think much less of property in truth. They accept it thankfully everywhere, and do not label or stamp it with any man’s name, for it is theirs long beforehand, and from eternity.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. The Over-Soul, in Essays, First Series (1841), The paragraph on conversation and the common nature, toward its end.
Close. 'think much less of property in truth' becomes 'do not care about owning truth'; 'The mind is one' is left out. The Jubilee list names I. Nakashidze's Russian of this essay, «Высшая душа» (Posrednik, 1902).
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.
Истина не может заставить человека быть недобрым или самоуверенным. Проявления истины всегда кротки, смиренны и просты.
Truth cannot make anyone unkind or self-assured. The manifestations of truth are always meek, humble, and simple.
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