27Juneиюня · 27-е июня
Добрая жизнь дается только тому, кто не переставая старается о ней.
A good life is given only to those who strive for it without ceasing.
1. Для того, чтобы добиться доброй жизни, надо не брезгать никаким добрым делом. Нужно не менее силы для маленьких добрых дел, чем для самого большого и громкого хорошего дела.
1. To attain a good life, we must not disdain any good deed. No less strength is needed for small good deeds than for the greatest and most resounding good deed.
2. Царство небесное силою берется, и употребляющие усилие восхищают его.
2. The kingdom of heaven is taken by force, and those who make an effort seize it.
From Matthew · shortened by Tolstoy .
The Russian Bible (Synodal translation)От дней же Иоанна Крестителя доныне Царство Небесное силою берется, и употребляющие усилие восхищают его, …
Source text: ru.wikisource.orgIn English · King James Version, 1611And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Matthew, 11:12.
The Synodal text with its opening, «От дней же Иоанна Крестителя доныне» (from the days of John the Baptist until now), left out, and «Царство небесное» in lower case. Otherwise word for word.
Translation note. The second half of the verse. The KJV has “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”
3. Если человек знает, в чем добродетель, и не делает того, чего она требует от него, то он делает то же, что путешественник, если он, зная, что, только продолжая путь, он найдет пристанище и пищу, остановится и будет дожидаться того, чтобы пристанище само пришло к нему.
3. If we know what virtue consists in and do not do what it requires of us, we do the same as travelers who, knowing that only by going on will they find shelter and food, stop and wait for the shelter to come to them of itself.
4. Чтобы не пролить полный сосуд, нужно внимательно держать его прямо.
Чтобы лезвие было остро, нужно постоянно точить его.
То же и с твоей душой, если ты ищешь истинного блага.
4. So as not to spill a full vessel, you must hold it carefully upright.
For a blade to be sharp, you must keep sharpening it.
So it is with your soul, if you seek the true good.
From Daodejing · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedLao-Tzu’s warnings against keeping a vessel full and a point sharp become two rules of care, as already in Tolstoy’s 1903 version, “hold it carefully upright” and “keep sharpening it,” and the Circle adds the lesson: “So it is with your soul, if you seek the true good.”
What Tolstoy read · Paul Carus, Lao-Tze's Tao-Teh-KingHolding and keeping full, had that not better be left alone? Handling and keeping sharp, can that wear long?
Source text: archive.orgIn English · James Legge, 1891It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to carry it when it is full.
If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness.
Source text: gutenberg.orgAnother translation · Lao-Tseu, Tao te king, traduit par Stanislas Julien… un vase que de vouloir le maintenir (lorsqu'il est plein).
… une lame , bien qu'on l'explore avec la main, on ne pourra la conserver constamment (tranchante).
Source text: archive.orgTolstoy’s own version · Мысли мудрых людей на каждый деньЧтобы не пролить полный сосуд, нужно внимательно держать его прямо. Чтобы лезвие было остро, нужно постоянно точить его.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Daodejing, ch. 9, its first two lines.
Two lines of chapter 9, turned into their opposite through Tolstoy's 1903 version (Thoughts of Wise Men, 4 August), with a sentence added. Lao-Tzu warns against fullness and sharpness: Carus, 'Holding and keeping full, had that not better be left alone? Handling and keeping sharp, can that wear long?'; Legge, 'It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to carry it when it is full. If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness.' The 1903 version makes them two rules of care: «Чтобы не пролить полный сосуд, нужно внимательно держать его прямо. Чтобы лезвие было остро, нужно постоянно точить его» (so as not to spill a full vessel one must hold it carefully upright; for a blade to be sharp one must keep sharpening it). The Circle keeps these and adds «То же и с твоей душой, если ты ищешь истинного блага» (so it is with your soul, if you seek the true good). Neither Carus nor Julien's French, which Tolstoy used with Popov in 1893 (Jubilee vol. 40 commentary), reads the lines as rules of care; which reading lay behind the 1903 version was not found.
Translation note. The Russian italic is broken only at the comma; it is set here as one span.
5. Если и есть великое и доброе для вас, оно не явится к вам по первому или второму зову, не явится к вам легко, без труда и усилия.
5. If there is indeed something great and good for you, it will not come to you at the first or second call; it will not come to you easily, without labor and effort.
From Culture, in The Conduct of Life · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changed“Nor in the shape of fashion, ease, and city drawing-rooms” becomes “it will not come to you easily, without labor and effort,” so the forms of society give way to effort.
Emerson’s own wordsIf there is any great and good thing in store for you, it will not come at the first or the second call, nor in the shape of fashion, ease, and city drawing-rooms.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Culture, in The Conduct of Life (1860), Near the end of the essay, after 'Heaven sometimes hedges a rare character about with ungainliness and odium'.
The first clause close ('If there is anything great and good for you, it will not come to you at the first or the second call'); the second changed: 'nor in the shape of fashion, ease, and city drawing-rooms' becomes 'will not come to you easily, without labor and effort'. Emerson's point, that the good does not come in the forms of society, becomes one about effort. Emerson calendars of the 1880s print the sentence for a day of the year (archive.org full text: Selections from the Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, arranged under the days of the year, 1887); Tolstoy's Emerson selections (Garnett, 1902; Broadbent, 1903) were not found. No printable, for the change.
6. Просите, и дано будет вам; ищите, и найдете; стучите, и отворят вам. Ибо всякий просящий получает, и ищущий находит, и стучащему отворят.
6. Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
From Matthew · close to the original .
The Russian Bible (Synodal translation)Проси́те, и дано будет вам; ищите, и найдете; стучите, и отворят вам; …
… ибо всякий просящий получает, и ищущий находит, и стучащему отворят.
Source text: ru.wikisource.orgIn English · King James Version, 1611Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: …
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Matthew, 7:7–8.
The Synodal text word for word.
7. Старайтесь жить жизнью, наиболее соответствующей добродетели, — говорил Пифагор. Она может быть наиболее трудною, но по мере привычки к ней она становится наиболее радостной.
7. “Strive to live the life most in keeping with virtue,” said Pythagoras. It may be the hardest, but as we grow used to it, it becomes the most joyful.
8. Животным бог дал всё, что им нужно. Но человеку он не дал этого, человек сам должен добыть всё, что ему необходимо. Высшая мудрость человека не родилась вместе с ним, он должен трудиться, чтобы достичь ее, и чем более его труды, тем более награда. Он не может приблизиться к совершенной мудрости, если он не сделает великого усилия.
8. To the animals God gave everything they need. But to man he did not give this; man must himself obtain everything necessary to him. Man’s highest wisdom was not born with him; he must labor to attain it, and the greater his labors, the greater the reward. He cannot draw near to perfect wisdom unless he makes a great effort.
Source not found yet .
Not found yet.
Not found. Tolstoy's source, the Jubilee commentary says, was I. F. Nazhivin's «Таблички бабидов» in «Голоса народов», no. I (Moscow, 1908), not found online. The thought, that God gave the animals all they need but man must win what he needs, and wisdom above all, by his own labor, was not found among the Hidden Words and Words of Wisdom of Bahá'u'lláh in Hammond's The Splendour of God, which gave the other «Таблички бабидов» entry of June (6-14.7).
Searched: The Hidden Words and Words of Wisdom in Eric Hammond's The Splendour of God (1909; 1911 printing), which gave 6-14.7; Conway's Sacred Anthology; Thoughts of Wise Men (1903) and the Jubilee commentary (vols. 40-42); archive.org for English Bahá'í and Bábí texts before 1910 (Tablets of Abdul-Baha Abbas, 1909, Browne's Materials for the Study of the Bábí Religion, 1918, not opened); web searches for the English and for Nazhivin's «Таблички бабидов».
Если хочешь блага, исполняй закон бога. Исполнение же закона бога возможно только усилием. Усилие не только вознаграждается радостной жизнью, но само усилие дает самое большое благо жизни.
If you want the good, fulfill the law of God. But fulfilling the law of God is possible only through effort. Effort is not only rewarded by a joyful life; effort itself gives the greatest good of life.
Tolstoy TodayТолстой сегодня · tolstoytoday.org/june/27