18Julyиюля · 18-е июля

1. 1. Человек, преступивший закон, думает, что со смертью вполне уже кончится его жизнь; такой человек способен склоняться ко всему злому.

   Буддийская мудрость. [Дхаммапада.]

   1. A man who has transgressed the law thinks that with death his life will be wholly ended; such a man is capable of inclining toward every evil.

   Buddhist wisdom [Dhammapada].

   From Dhammapada · reworded by Tolstoy (more).

   What changed

   Scoffing “at another world” becomes the belief “that with death his life will be wholly ended,” and “there is no evil he will not do” becomes “capable of inclining toward every evil”; the liar of the verse, kept in 1903, is struck from the Circle. †

   † An intermediate translation may have made this change.

   Leo Tolstoy as Editor: A different point ›

   Original · Pali

   Ekaṁ dhammaṁ atītassa, …

   … musāvādissa jantuno; …

   Vitiṇṇaparalokassa, …

   … natthi pāpaṁ akāriyaṁ.

   Source text: raw.githubusercontent.com

   In English · F. Max Müller, 1881

   176. If a man has transgressed one law, and speaks lies, and scoffs at another world, there is no evil he will not do.

   Source text: gutenberg.org

   Tolstoy’s own version · Мысли мудрых людей на каждый день

   Лживый, дурной человек, преступивший закон, думает беззаботно, что со смертью вполне уже кончится его жизнь; такой человек способен склоняться ко всему злому.

   Source text: tolstoy.ru

   Details

   The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Dhammapada, v. 176 (Lokavagga).

   Tolstoy's 1903 version (Thoughts of Wise Men, 21 June), whose Dhammapada was N. Gerasimov's Russian (1898; Jubilee vol. 40), not found online, shortened for the Circle: «Лживый, дурной» (lying, bad) and «беззаботно» (carelessly) are struck. The verse: for one who has transgressed one law (ekaṁ dhammaṁ), who speaks falsely, and who has given up the other world, there is no evil he would not do (Müller: 'If a man has transgressed one law, and speaks lies, and scoffs at another world, there is no evil he will not do'). The Russian makes 'has given up the other world' into a belief, «думает, что со смертью вполне уже кончится его жизнь» (thinks that with death his life will wholly end), which suits the day's theme of eternal life; 'one law' becomes «закон» (the law), and 'there is no evil he will not do' becomes «способен склоняться ко всему злому» (is capable of inclining to every evil). With the liar struck in the Circle, nothing of musāvādī remains. Whether the belief in death's finality was Gerasimov's or Tolstoy's is not known.

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2. 2. В душе нашей лежит зародыш истины бессмертия. Он лежит в разуме, который видит неполноту нашего существования в этом мире, требующую продолжения для достижения своей цели. Зародыш этот — в нашей жажде счастья, столь сильной, что она никогда не может быть удовлетворена в этом мире. Зародыш этот — в любви к добру, которая по мере того, как мы воспитываем ее, пробуждает в нас стремление к полному совершенству и единению с Совершенным.

   Чаннинг.

   2. In our soul lies the seed of the truth of immortality. It lies in reason, which sees the incompleteness of our existence in this world, an incompleteness that requires continuation for its goal to be reached. This seed is in our thirst for happiness, so strong that it can never be satisfied in this world. This seed is in the love of good, which, in the measure that we cultivate it, awakens in us a striving toward complete perfection and union with the Perfect.

   Channing.

   From The Perfect Life · shortened by Tolstoy (more).

   Channing’s own words

   The germ of this great truth is in our nature; in the conscience, that includes as one of its elements a presentiment of retribution; in the reason, that beholds in the present an incomplete destiny, needing to be continued for the fulfilment of its end : in the thirst for happiness, that is too deep to be satisfied on earth, but opens into aspiration towards an infinitelv blessed Being; in the love of moral goodness and beauty, which in proportion as it is cultivated awakens the ideal of spotless virtue and a desire of community with the All-Perfect One.

   Source text: archive.org

   Details

   The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. The Perfect Life (1873), II, God Revealed in the Universe and in Humanity, On Jesus' doctrine of immortality; The Works of William E. Channing (Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1890), p. 939.

   One sentence of Channing's, made four, its first clause cut. 'The germ of this great truth is in our nature' becomes 'In our soul lies the germ of the truth of immortality'; the clause on the conscience, 'that includes as one of its elements a presentiment of retribution', is left out; 'in the reason, that beholds in the present an incomplete destiny, needing to be continued for the fulfilment of its end' is close; 'in the thirst for happiness, that is too deep to be satisfied on earth' is kept and 'but opens into aspiration towards an infinitely blessed Being' left out; 'in the love of moral goodness and beauty' becomes 'in the love of the good' (moral and beauty gone), and 'which in proportion as it is cultivated awakens the ideal of spotless virtue and a desire of community with the All-Perfect One' becomes 'which, as we cultivate it, awakens in us a striving for complete perfection and union with the Perfect'. Tolstoy repeats 'This germ is' (Зародыш этот) at the head of each clause. The scan reads 'infinitelv'. No printable, for the cuts.

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3. 3. Люди не знают ничего о том мире и потому желают остаться здесь. Самое большое желание их — это жить в этом мире вечно. Но птица, побывавшая в цветущем саду, не хочет быть запертой в клетке. Если она и попадет в клетку, она будет желать вырваться из нее, чтобы снова возвратиться в сад. Так и человек: когда он будет освобожден от тела, он не захочет возвратиться в него. Разве есть такой ребенок, который, родившись, снова пожелал бы возвратиться в чрево матери? Разве есть человек, который, будучи освобожден из тюрьмы, захотел бы снова вернуться в нее? Разве есть птица, которая, ускользнув из клетки, захочет снова быть запертой в ней? Так и человек не будет бояться предстоящего ему освобождения от тела, если он не привязан к телесной жизни.

   Таблички бабидов.

   3. People know nothing of that world, and therefore they wish to remain here. Their greatest desire is to live in this world forever. But a bird that has been in a blossoming garden does not want to be shut up in a cage. Even if it does get into a cage, it will want to break out of it, to return to the garden again. So it is with man: when he is freed from the body, he will not want to return to it. Is there a child that, once born, would wish to return to its mother’s womb again? Is there a man who, freed from prison, would want to go back to it again? Is there a bird that, having escaped from its cage, will want to be shut up in it again? So too man will not fear the release from the body that awaits him, if he is not attached to the bodily life.

   Tablets of the Babis.

   From Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi · reworded by Tolstoy (more).

   What changed

   “When a man is delivered” becomes “when he is freed from the body,” and the close, that no man, “unless he be imperfect or undeveloped,” will be attached to material things, becomes a condition for not fearing death: man “will not fear the release from the body that awaits him, if he is not attached to the bodily life.” †

   † An intermediate translation may have made this change.

   Leo Tolstoy as Editor: A different point ›

   In English · The interpreter's English of Abbas Effendi's spoken Persian, as Myron H. Phelps took it down (Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi, New York and London, Putnam, 1903), 1903

   Men in their present condition are ignorant of that world, and therefore they wish to remain here.

   But the bird which has known the flower garden will not wish to be confined in the cage. If he finds himself there, his desire will be to escape from it that he may return to the garden. So when a man is delivered, he will not wish to return.

   Is there any child who, after being born into the world, desires to return to the womb? Is there any man who, having been freed from prison, desires to be again imprisoned? Is there any bird which, after it has escaped from the cage, will desire to return to it?

   … neither will a man, unless he be imperfect or undeveloped, be attached to material things.

   Source text: archive.org

   Details

   The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi (1903), ch. XI (Discourses, continued), 'The Worlds of Darkness and Light', pp. 201-202.

   A discourse of Abbas Effendi (ʻAbdu'l-Bahá), son and successor of Bahá'u'lláh, which Myron H. Phelps heard at Akka and printed in Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi (1903) under 'The Worlds of Darkness and Light'; Phelps says the discourses were taken down from the interpreter consecutively. Tolstoy's source, the Jubilee commentary says, was I. F. Nazhivin's «Таблички бабидов» in «Голоса народов», no. I (Moscow, 1908), not found online; since that book is of 1908, the entry probably came in with Tolstoy's 1908 revision. Against Phelps: 'Their utmost desire is to live here always — like a bird in a cage' loses the cage simile; 'when a man is delivered' becomes «когда он будет освобожден от тела» (when he is freed from the body); 'He will never desire to descend — to be exiled from the godly world and come back to this dark world' is dropped, and so is the lame bird with a broken wing that alone prefers the cage; the close, 'neither will a man, unless he be imperfect or undeveloped, be attached to material things', becomes «Так и человек не будет бояться предстоящего ему освобождения от тела, если он не привязан к телесной жизни» (so a man will not fear his coming release from the body if he is not attached to bodily life): a statement about the developed man becomes a condition for not fearing death. Whether these changes are Nazhivin's or Tolstoy's cannot be told while Nazhivin's text is unseen. The signature names Nazhivin's collection; the words are the Bahá'í leader's, spoken, and no Persian text of the discourse was found. Not in Thoughts of Wise Men (1903).

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4. 4. Человек познáет, что он не умрет, только тогда, когда он познáет то, что он никогда не рождался, а всегда был, есть и будет.

   Человек поверит в свое бессмертие только тогда, когда он поймет, что его жизнь не есть волна, а есть то вечное движение, которое в этой жизни проявляется только волною.

   4. We will come to know that we will not die only when we come to know that we were never born, but always were, are, and will be.

   We will believe in our immortality only when we understand that our life is not a wave, but is that eternal movement which in this life shows itself only as a wave.

5. 5. Думать о смерти нечего, но надо жить в виду ее. Вся жизнь в виду смерти становится торжественна, значительна, истинно плодотворна и радостна. Она становится такою и потому, что она всякую минуту может прекратиться, и потому, что в виду смерти нельзя не делать того одного, чтó нужно для неумирающей жизни, т. е. для бога. А когда так живешь, жизнь становится радостной, и нет того пугала смерти, которое отравляет жизнь людей, живущих одной животной жизнию. Страх смерти обратно пропорционален хорошей жизни. При святой жизни этот страх — нуль.

   5. There is no need to think about death, but you must live with it in view. All of life, in view of death, becomes solemn, significant, truly fruitful, and joyful. It becomes so both because it may end at any minute and because, in view of death, you cannot help doing the one thing that is needed for the undying life, that is, for God. And when you live so, life becomes joyful, and there is none of that bugbear of death which poisons the life of people who live the animal life alone. The fear of death is inversely proportional to a good life. In a holy life this fear is zero.

   Translation note. “Bugbear” renders «пугало», literally “scarecrow.”

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