19Octoberоктября · 19-е октября
Смысл жизни открывается тотчас же тому, кто готов покориться тому, что откроется ему, и скрывается от того, кто вперед уже решил, что он признает истинным только такой смысл жизни, который не нарушит любимой им и привычной ему жизни.
The meaning of life is revealed at once to those who are ready to submit to whatever will be revealed to them, and is hidden from those who have already decided beforehand that they will recognize as true only a meaning of life that will not disturb the life they love and are used to.
1. «Что такое я? Что должен я делать? Во что могу я верить и на что надеяться? к этому сводится всё в философии», говорит философ Лихтенберг. — Из этих вопросов главный — средний. Если человек узнает, что ему делать, то он узнает всё, что ему нужно знать.
1. “What am I? What ought I to do? What can I believe in, and what can I hope for? Everything in philosophy comes down to this,” says the philosopher Lichtenberg. Of these questions, the chief is the middle one. If we learn what we are to do, we learn all that we need to know.
2. О том, как сохранить платье от моли, железо от ржавчины, картофель от гниения и т. п., мое мнение может изменяться, но как сохранить от гниения душу, мне нечему учиться, мне надо только исполнять то, что я знаю.
2. On how to keep clothes from moths, iron from rust, potatoes from rotting, and so on, my opinion may change; but as for how to keep the soul from rotting, I have nothing to learn; I need only do what I know.
From Letter to Harrison Blake, Concord, 27 February 1853 · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedThoreau’s one example, keeping potatoes from rotting, becomes three, with clothes kept from moths and iron from rust added, and “something to practice” is spelled out: “I need only do what I know”; “your opinion may change from year to year” becomes “my opinion may change.”
What Tolstoy read · Every Day with Thoreau, in The Coming DayAs to how to preserve potatoes from rotting, your opinion may change from year to year; …
… your soul from rotting, I have nothing to learn, but something to practise.
Source text: archive.orgThoreau’s own wordsAs to how to preserve potatoes from rotting, your opinion may change from year to year; but as to how to preserve your soul from rotting, I have nothing to learn, but something to practice.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Letter to Harrison Blake, Concord, 27 February 1853 (Familiar Letters, Writings vol. VI, 1906), a paragraph of one sentence, after 'the same surprising and everlastingly new light dawns to me'.
Expanded and changed. Thoreau's 'As to how to preserve potatoes from rotting' becomes «О том, как сохранить платье от моли, железо от ржавчины, картофель от гниения и т. п.» (As to how to preserve clothes from moths, iron from rust, potatoes from rotting, and so on): the clothes and the iron are Tolstoy's. 'Your opinion may change from year to year' becomes «мое мнение может изменяться» (my opinion may change), without 'from year to year'. 'I have nothing to learn, but something to practice' becomes «мне нечему учиться, мне надо только исполнять то, что я знаю» (I have nothing to learn; I need only carry out what I know), the last words set in emphasis. Tolstoy's route was the calendar 'Every Day with Thoreau' in The Coming Day, which prints the sentence for December 8, credited to 'Letters', with 'practise'. The Jubilee list of the Circle's sources names 'Every day with Thoreau', bound sheets from an unidentified book. No printable.
Translation note. The Russian italic is broken only at the comma; it is set here as one span.
3. Блажен тот, кто нашел свое дело; пусть он не ищет другого блаженства. У него есть дело и цель жизни.
3. Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life-purpose.
From Past and Present · close to the original .
Tolstoy’s version, in EnglishBlessed is he who has found his work; let him seek no other blessedness. He has a work and an aim in life.
Carlyle’s own wordsBlessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.
He has a work, a life-purpose; he has found it, and will follow it!
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Past and Present (1843), Book III 'The Modern Worker', ch. XI 'Labour', the paragraph beginning 'Blessed is he who has found his work'.
Close. Tolstoy keeps Carlyle's first sentence and the first clause of the second, stopping at 'a life-purpose', before 'he has found it, and will follow it!'. 'Let him ask no other blessedness' becomes «пусть он не ищет другого блаженства» (let him seek no other blessedness), and 'He has a work, a life-purpose' becomes «У него есть дело и цель жизни» (He has a work and a purpose in life). Southgate's Suggestive Thoughts prints the same words among its passages on the blessedness of work, through 'and will follow it', and the Jubilee list of the Circle's sources names L. P. Nikiforov's Russian selection from Carlyle, «Загадка сфинкса» (1900), not found online; either may have been Tolstoy's route. Not in Thoughts of Wise Men (1903). Faithful to the English: printable offered.
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.
4. Горе людям, которые видят, не зная что, которые стоят, не зная на чем.
4. Woe to those who see without knowing what they see, who stand without knowing what they stand on.
From Babylonian Talmud, Chagigah · close to the original .
Original · Hebrewאוי להם לבריות שרואות ואינן יודעות מה רואות עומדות ואין יודעות על מה הן עומדות
Source text: sefaria.orgIn English · S. H. Glick, En Jacob (Ein Yaakov) (via Sefaria), 1916Woe to the human beings who see and know not what they see; who stand and know not upon what they stand.
Source text: sefaria.orgTolstoy’s own version · Мысли мудрых людей на каждый деньГоре людям, которые видят, не зная что, которые стоят, не зная на чем.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Babylonian Talmud, Chagigah, 12b.
R. Yose's saying in a baraita of Chagigah 12b, close: 'woe to the creatures who see and know not what they see, who stand and know not on what they stand'. In the Talmud it opens a cosmology: the earth stands on pillars, the pillars on the waters, the waters on the mountains, up to the arm of God; Tolstoy takes the saying alone. The Circle repeats Thoughts of Wise Men (1903), 10 April, word for word, where Pascal follows it on those who do not know the meaning of their lives. Tolstoy's Talmud came through two Russian anthologies (Gurvich, 1901; «Мировоззрение талмудистов», 1874–76), not online.
5. Несчастны люди, не знающие смысла своей жизни, а между тем уверенность в том, что этого нельзя знать, так распространена между людьми, что они даже гордятся, как мудростью, тем; что не желают знать этого.
5. Unhappy are the people who do not know the meaning of their life; and yet the conviction that it cannot be known is so widespread among people that they even take pride, as in wisdom, in not wishing to know it.
Probably from Pensées · reworded by Tolstoy .
Not in Leo Tolstoy as EditorPascal is only a candidate: the thought answers in sense to Pensée 194 (Brunschvicg), but the Jubilee commentary says P. A. Boulanger signed it with Pascal’s name by guess and that it is Tolstoy’s own, and A. I. Orlov’s Russian Pascal, the 1903 book’s source for Pascal, was not seen.
Original · French… et ainsi celui qui doute et qui ne cherche pas est tout ensemble et bien malheureux et bien injuste ; que s’il est avec cela tranquille et satisfait, qu’il en fasse profession, et enfin qu’il en fasse vanité, et que ce soit de cet état même qu’il fasse le sujet de sa joie et de sa vanité, je n’ai point de termes pour qualifier une si extravagante créature.
Il faut qu’il y ait un étrange renversement dans la nature de l’homme pour faire gloire d’être dans cet état, dans lequel il semble incroyable qu’une seule personne puisse être. Cependant l’expérience m’en fait voir en si grand nombre que cela serait surprenant, si nous ne savions que la plupart de ceux qui s’en mêlent se contrefont et ne sont pas tels en effet …
Source text: fr.wikisource.orgIn English · W. F. Trotter, 1910… and thus the doubter who does not seek is altogether completely unhappy and completely wrong. And if besides this he is easy and content, professes to be so, and indeed boasts of it; if it is this state itself which is the subject of his joy and vanity, I have no words to describe so silly a creature.
There must be a strange confusion in the nature of man, that he should boast of being in that state in which it seems incredible that a single individual should be. However, experience has shown me so great a number of such persons that the fact would be surprising, if we did not know that the greater part of those who trouble themselves about the matter are disingenuous, and not in fact what they say.
Source text: gutenberg.orgTolstoy’s own version · Мысли мудрых людей на каждый деньГоре людям, не знающим смысла своей жизни, а между тем уверенность в том, что этого нельзя знать, так распространена между людьми, что они даже гордятся как мудростью тем, что не желают знать этого.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
A likely source, not certain. Pensées, Brunschvicg 194 (Section III); Trotter 194.
Pascal's thought in B. 194, in other words, probably Tolstoy's. The Circle takes it from Thoughts of Wise Men (1903, 10 April, no. 2), writing «Несчастны люди» (unhappy are people) for «Горе людям» (woe to people) (tolstoy). The vol. 40 commentary says that some thoughts in the manuscript sent to Посредник were unsigned, that P. A. Boulanger signed them by guess, and that thought 2 of 10 April, among others he signed «Влас Паскаль», belongs to Tolstoy himself; the Jubilee text of vol. 40 still prints the signature there. A manuscript variant printed in vol. 40 adds a sentence in Tolstoy's manner: they think they do not know it only because they live against the plain meaning of human life, open to everyone. The thought is nonetheless Pascal's in B. 194: the doubter who does not seek is 'tout ensemble et bien malheureux et bien injuste' (at once most unhappy and most unjust), and worse if he 'en fasse vanité' (makes a boast of it); there must be a strange perversion in man's nature 'pour faire gloire d'être dans cet état' (to glory in being in that state), yet experience shows Pascal 'si grand nombre' (so great a number) of such people. Tolstoy's «смысла своей жизни» (the meaning of their life) stands for Pascal's question of the soul's immortality, and «как мудростью» (as wisdom) is his own. So the thought is either Tolstoy's summary of B. 194, as the commentary implies, or a free rendering in A. I. Orlov's Russian Pascal (Посредник), the 1903 book's source for Pascal, not seen. The attribution is doubtful on the commentary's word alone and is left in this note.
Searched: Brunschvicg's Pensées (all fifteen sections saved) and Trotter's English for 'vanité', 'gloire', 'malheureux', and 'boast'; Jubilee vol. 40 (text, variants, and commentary on the signatures) and vol. 42 (commentary and name index); archive.org for Orlov's «Французский ученый Влас Паскаль», not found.
6. Человек сидит в тюрьме и не знает, какой приговор о нем постановлен. У него остается всего час времени для того, чтобы узнать об этом, и если он узнает, что он приговорен к смерти, то этого часа достаточно, чтобы ему выхлопотать отмену этого приговора. Неужели же он употребит этот час не на то, чтобы узнать, каков приговор, а на игру в карты? Это было бы ни с чем несообразно. А между тем так точно поступают люди, не думающие о боге и о вечности.
6. A man is sitting in prison and does not know what sentence has been passed on him. He has only an hour left in which to find out, and if he learns that he has been condemned to death, that hour is enough for him to have the sentence revoked. Will he really spend that hour not on finding out what the sentence is, but on playing cards? That would be utterly absurd. And yet this is exactly what people do who do not think about God and eternity.
From Pensées · close to the original .
Original · FrenchUn homme dans un cachot, ne sachant si son arrêt est donné, n’ayant plus qu’une heure pour l’apprendre, cette heure suffisant, s’il sait qu’il est donné, pour le faire révoquer, il est contre nature qu’il emploie cette heure-là, non à s’informer si l’arrêt est donné, mais à jouer au piquet.
Ainsi, il est surnaturel que l’homme, etc. ; c’est un appesantissement de la main de Dieu.
Source text: fr.wikisource.orgIn English · W. F. Trotter, 1910A man in a dungeon, ignorant whether his sentence be pronounced, and having only one hour to learn it, but this hour enough, if he know that it is pronounced, to obtain its repeal, would act unnaturally in spending that hour, not in ascertaining his sentence, but in playing piquet.
Source text: gutenberg.orgPensées de Pascal, précédées de sa vie par Mme Périer, sa sœurUn homme dans un cachot, ne sachant si son arrêt est donné, n'ayant puisqu'une heure pour l'apprendre, et cette heure suffisant, s'il sait qu'il est donné , pour le fciire révoquer ; il est contre la nature qu'il emploie cette heurelà, non à s'informer si cet arrêt est donné , mais à jouer et à se divertir. C'est l'état où se trouvent ces personnes ; …
Source text: archive.orgTolstoy’s own version · Мысли мудрых людей на каждый деньЧеловек сидит в тюрьме и не знает, какой приговор о нем постановлен. У него остается всего час времени для того, чтобы узнать об этом, и если он узнает, что он приговорен к смерти, то этого часа достаточно, чтобы ему выхлопотать отмену этого приговора. Неужели же он употребит этот час не на то, чтобы узнать, каков приговор, а на игру в карты? Это было бы ни с чем несообразно. А между тем так точно поступают люди, не думающие о боге и о вечности.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Pensées, Brunschvicg 200 (Section III); Trotter 200; Didot ed. (1863), part II, art. II, p. 156.
B. 200, closely, copied word for word from Thoughts of Wise Men (1903, 6 August, no. 2; tolstoy). Tolstoy makes the man's choice a question, «Неужели же он употребит этот час … на игру в карты?» (will he really spend this hour … playing cards?), and 'il est contre nature' (it is against nature) «Это было бы ни с чем несообразно» (that would be absurd). His «игру в карты» (card playing) answers the manuscript's 'jouer au piquet' (Brunschvicg; Trotter 'playing piquet'); the Port-Royal text in the Didot printing has 'à jouer et à se divertir' (to play and amuse himself) and goes on, 'C'est l'état où se trouvent ces personnes' (that is the state these persons are in), those indifferent to religion, which Tolstoy's last sentence follows: «А между тем так точно поступают люди, не думающие о боге и о вечности» (and yet that is just how people act who do not think of God and eternity) (edition). Pascal's manuscript ends otherwise: 'il est surnaturel que l'homme, etc.; c'est un appesantissement de la main de Dieu' (it is supernatural that man, etc.; it is a heavy pressing of the hand of God). The 1903 book's Pascal came from A. I. Orlov's «Французский ученый Влас Паскаль» (Посредник; vol. 40 commentary), not seen, which may account for the mix.
7. Всякая птица знает, где делать свое жилище. Зная, где ее жилище, она показывает, что знает свое назначение. Неужели человек, умнейшее из всех существ, не может знать того, что знает птица: в чем назначение его жизни?
7. Every bird knows where to make its dwelling. Knowing where its dwelling is, it shows that it knows its purpose. Can it be that man, the most intelligent of all beings, cannot know what a bird knows: what the purpose of his life is?
From The Great Learning · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedThe ode’s yellow bird becomes “Every bird,” as in Tolstoy’s 1903 version from Pauthier’s French, and the Circle names what the bird knows and man should: “what the purpose of his life is,” where the Chinese and Pauthier speak of the place to rest (Legge: “it knows where to rest”).
What Tolstoy read · G. Pauthier, Confucius et Mencius: Les quatre livres de philosophie morale et politique …«L'oiseau jaune au chant plaintif _mien-mân Fixe sa demeure_ dans le creux touffu des montagnes.»
_En fixant là sa demeure_, il prouve qu'il connaît le lieu de sa _destination_; et l'homme [la plus intelligente des créatures][4] ne pourrait pas en savoir autant que l'oiseau!
«L'homme est de tous les êtres le plus intelligent; …
Source text: gutenberg.orgIn English · James Legge, 1895In the Book of Poetry, it is said, "The twittering yellow bird rests on a corner of the mound."
The Master said, " When it rests, it knows where to rest. Is it possible that a man should not be equal to this bird ? "
Source text: archive.orgTolstoy’s own version · Мысли мудрых людей на каждый деньВсякая птица знает, где делать свое жилище. Зная, где ее жилище, она показывает, что знает свое назначение. Неужели человек, умнейшее из всех существ, не может знать того же, что и птица?
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. The Great Learning (Daxue), commentary, ch. III, § 2 (Zhu Xi's arrangement; Pauthier, Explication de Thsêng-tseu, ch. III, § 2).
Pauthier's French, in Tolstoy's own Russian of Thoughts of Wise Men (1903), 6 August, signed «Китайская мудрость («Та-Хио»)», with an ending added for the Circle. The Great Learning quotes an ode, 'The twittering yellow bird rests on a corner of the mound', and the Master's comment, 'When it rests, it knows where to rest. Is it possible that a man should not be equal to this bird?' (Legge). Pauthier reads 止 (to rest, to stop) as fixing a dwelling and knowing a 'destination', and adds in brackets the commentary's gloss on man, «la plus intelligente des créatures» (from the Ji-kiang, his note 4: «L'homme est de tous les êtres le plus intelligent»). The 1903 text follows him: the ode's yellow bird becomes «Всякая птица» (every bird), its dwelling shows «что знает свое назначение» (that it knows its calling; Pauthier «le lieu de sa destination»), and man is «умнейшее из всех существ» (the most intelligent of all beings), Pauthier's bracket. 1903 ends «не может знать того же, что и птица?» (cannot know as much as the bird?); the Circle ends «не может знать того, что знает птица: в чем назначение его жизни?» (cannot know what the bird knows: what the calling of his life is?). The added question names what a man should know, the calling of his life, where the Chinese and Pauthier speak of the place to rest. The comment is Confucius's (子曰; Pauthier «Le philosophe [KHOUNG-TSEU] a dit»), the line before it the Book of Odes'; «Китайская мудрость» covers both and stands.
Уразумение истинного смысла жизни или недоступно: если отыскивать смысл жизни всего мира, или так просто, что открывается малоумным и младенцам: если отыскивается смысл моей жизни — что мне делать.
An understanding of the true meaning of life is either inaccessible, if what is sought is the meaning of the life of the whole world, or so simple that it is revealed to the simple-minded and to babes, if what is sought is the meaning of my life: what I am to do.
Translation note. The words recall Matthew 11:25 (KJV: “hast revealed them unto babes”).
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