21Juneиюня · 21-е июня
Страдания жизни неразумной приводят к сознанию необходимости разумной жизни.
The sufferings of an irrational life lead to the consciousness that a rational life is necessary.
1. Я, как разбойник, знал, что жил и живу скверно, видел, что большинство людей вокруг меня живет так же. Я так же, как разбойник, знал, что я несчастлив и страдаю и что вокруг меня люди так же несчастливы и страдают, и не видал никакого выхода, кроме смерти, из этого положения. Я так же, как разбойник к кресту, был пригвожден какой-то силой к этой жизни страданий и зла. И как разбойника ожидал страшный мрак смерти после бессмысленных страданий и зла жизни, так и меня ожидало то же.
Во всем этом я был совершенно подобен разбойнику, но различие мое от разбойника было в том, что он умирал уже, а я еще жил. Разбойник мог поверить тому, что спасение его будет там, за гробом, а я не мог поверить этому, потому что, кроме жизни за гробом, мне предстояла еще и жизнь здесь. А я не понимал этой жизни. Она мне казалась ужасною. И вдруг я услыхал слова Христа, понял их, и жизнь и смерть перестали мне казаться злом, и вместо отчаяния я испытал радость и счастие жизни, не нарушимые смертью.
1. Like the thief, I knew that I had lived and was living badly, and I saw that most of the people around me lived the same way. Like the thief, I knew that I was unhappy and suffering, and that the people around me were just as unhappy and suffering, and I saw no way out of this situation except death. Just as the thief was nailed to the cross, I was nailed by some force to this life of suffering and evil. And as the terrible darkness of death awaited the thief after the senseless sufferings and evil of life, so the same awaited me.
In all this I was entirely like the thief, but the difference between the thief and me was that he was already dying, while I was still living. The thief could believe that his salvation would be there, beyond the grave, but I could not believe this, because besides the life beyond the grave, there was still the life here before me. And I did not understand this life. It seemed terrible to me. And suddenly I heard the words of Christ and understood them, and life and death ceased to seem evil to me, and instead of despair I experienced the joy and happiness of life, unbroken by death.
Translation note. The thief is the one of the two men crucified with Jesus who asked to be remembered in his kingdom (Luke 23:39–43); «разбойник» is literally “robber.”
2. Большинство людей — блудные сыновья и дочери, которые растрачивают свои жизненные силы и средства на то, что не имеет никакой цены. Они отходят всё дальше и дальше от «отчего дома», питаясь, как блудный сын, рожками; наконец, духовная бедность заставляет их вернуться к «отчему дому», и им приходится тогда, как младенцам, с самого начала изучать путь истинной жизни.
2. Most people are prodigal sons and daughters, who squander their vital powers and means on what has no value at all. They go farther and farther away from their “father’s house,” feeding, like the prodigal son, on husks; at last spiritual poverty compels them to return to their “father’s house,” and then, like infants, they have to learn the way of true life from the very beginning.
From The World's Advance-Thought and the Universal Republic · close to the original .
Lucy Mallory’s own wordsThe world, generally, is made up of prodigal sons and daughters, for they waste their living substance and possessions upon that which availeth not.
They recede farther and farther away from "the Father's house," feeding upon husks.
At last poverty of soul compels them to. return to "the Father's house," when they must begin as spiritual Infants to learn the way of true life.
Source text: iapsop.comDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. The World's Advance-Thought and the Universal Republic (Lucy A. Mallory's journal, Portland, Oregon), vol. XIV, no. 11, December 1901, p. 166, a paragraph signed 'L. A. M.'.
Close, with words added and left out. 'The world, generally, is made up of prodigal sons and daughters' becomes 'Most people are prodigal sons and daughters' (Большинство людей — блудные сыновья и дочери); 'waste their living substance and possessions upon that which availeth not' becomes 'squander their vital forces and means on what has no value' (растрачивают свои жизненные силы и средства на то, что не имеет никакой цены). Tolstoy adds 'like the prodigal son' (как блудный сын) to 'feeding upon husks', and 'begin as spiritual Infants to learn the way of true life' becomes 'have to learn, like infants, from the very beginning, the way of true life' (как младенцам, с самого начала изучать путь истинной жизни): 'spiritual' is left out and 'from the very beginning' added. 'Compels them to. return' is the text layer's reading; archive.org's scan of vol. XIV (saved) reads 'compels them to, return'. No printable, because of the words added and left out inside the passage.
Translation note. «Рожки», carob pods, are the “husks” the prodigal son longed to eat (Luke 15:16).
3. Тремя путями мы познаем мудрость: размышлением — самый благородный путь; подражанием — это самый легкий, и третий — опытный — это самый тяжелый.
3. We come to know wisdom by three paths: by reflection — the noblest path; by imitation — the easiest; and the third, by experience — the hardest.
From The World's Advance-Thought and the Universal Republic · close to the original .
What Tolstoy read · The World's Advance-Thought and the Universal Republic, vol. XIV, no. 11, December 1901By three methods we may learn wisdom: …
First by reflection, which is the noblest; …
… by imitation, which is the easiest; …
… third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
Source text: iapsop.comDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. The World's Advance-Thought and the Universal Republic (Lucy A. Mallory's journal, Portland, Oregon), vol. XIV, no. 11, December 1901, a filler paragraph signed "Confucius".
In Lucy Mallory's The World's Advance-Thought (December 1901), signed Confucius: 'By three methods we may learn wisdom: First by reflection, which is the noblest; second, by imitation, which is the easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.' Tolstoy is close; 'the bitterest' becomes «самый тяжелый» (the hardest). The saying is not in the Analects or the other Four Books (Legge's and Pauthier's translations searched), and no Chinese source for it was found, so the attribution to Confucius is unsupported. Not in Thoughts of Wise Men (1903).
4. При всяком постигшем тебя страдании думай не столько о том, как тебе избавиться от страдания, сколько о том, чего, каких усилий для нравственного совершенствования оно требует от тебя.
4. In every suffering that befalls you, think not so much of how to rid yourself of the suffering as of what it demands of you, what efforts toward moral perfection.
Все бедствия и всего человечества и отдельных людей не бесполезны и ведут человечество и людей, хотя и окольным путем, всё к той же одной цели, которая поставлена людям: проявлению бога каждым человеком в себе и во всем человечестве.
None of the calamities, whether of all humanity or of individual people, is useless; they lead humanity and people, though by a roundabout way, ever toward one and the same aim, the one set before people: the manifestation of God by each of us in ourselves and in all humanity.
Tolstoy TodayТолстой сегодня · tolstoytoday.org/june/21