26Octoberоктября · 26-е октября
Для нравственной жизни важность дела измеряется не вещественным значением дела и его возможными последствиями, а только степенью доброго усилия.
In the moral life the importance of a deed is measured not by its material significance or its possible consequences, but only by the degree of good effort in it.
1. Большинство людей, желая исправить свою жизнь, более желают совершить что-нибудь трудное и необыкновенное, чем очистить свои желания и отказаться от самоугождения в обыкновенных обязанностях своего положения. А между тем последнее гораздо важнее первого.
1. Most people who wish to amend their lives would rather do something hard and extraordinary than purify their desires and give up pleasing themselves in the ordinary duties of their station. And yet the second matters far more than the first.
From Instructions et avis sur divers points de la morale et de la perfection chrétienne · shortened by Tolstoy .
Original · FrenchLa plupart des gens, quand ils veulent se convertir ou se réformer, songent bien plus à remplir leur vie de certaines actions difficiles et extraordinaires, qu'à purifier leurs intentions, et à mourir à leurs inclinations naturelles dans les actions les plus communes de leur état : en quoi ils se trompent fort souvent. Il vaudroit beaucoup mieux changer moins les actions , et changer davantage la disposition du cœur qui les fait faire.
Source text: archive.orgIn English · Eliza Lee Cabot Follen ("a Lady"), Selections from the Writings of Fenelon, 3rd ed., Boston, 1831Most persons, when they wish to be converted or to reform, think more of performing some difficult and extraordinary actions, than of purifying their intentions, and sacrificing their inclinations in the most common duties of their situation in life ; in which they are deceived.
It would be better to make less change in the action, and a deeper change in the disposition with which it is performed.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Instructions et avis sur divers points de la morale et de la perfection chrétienne, Avis II, "Avis à une personne de la cour: se permettre sans scrupule les divertissements attachés à son état; les sanctifier par une intention pure" (Œuvres complètes, Paris: Leroux et Jouby, 1850–51, t. VI); in the Œuvres spirituelles of 1752, t. II, no. XLV "Des divertissemens attachés à l’état des personnes".
Tolstoy keeps the contrast but turns "purify their intentions" into purifying their desires and "die to their natural inclinations" into renouncing self-pleasing, and replaces Fénelon's "in which they are very often mistaken; better to change the actions less and the heart's disposition more" with a flat verdict. The advice was written to a courtier about amusements he could not avoid; that context is gone, as "after Fénelon" signals.
2. Тот, кто не исполняет того дела, которое он чувствует, что должен бы сделать, только потому, что оно кажется ему слишком малым, обманывает самого себя. Он не делает его не потому, что оно слишком мало, а потому, что оно слишком велико для него.
2. Whoso neglects a thing which he suspects he ought to do, because it seems to him too small a thing, is deceiving himself; it is not too little, but too great for him, that he doeth it not.
From Saying signed E. B. Pusey, as printed in Daily Strength for Daily Needs, ed. Mary W. Til… · close to the original .
Tolstoy’s version, in EnglishWhoever leaves undone a thing he feels he ought to do, only because it seems too small to him, deceives himself. He does not do it, not because it is too small, but because it is too great for him.
The anthology Tolstoy probably took it from… he suspects he ought to do, because it seems to him too small a thing, is deceiving himself: it is not too little, but too great for him, that he doeth it not.
18. E. B. Pusey.
Source text: archive.orgPusey’s own wordsWhoso neglects a thing which he suspects he ought to do, because it seems to him too small a thing, is deceiving himself; it is not too little, but too great for him, that he doeth it not.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Saying signed E. B. Pusey, as printed in Daily Strength for Daily Needs, ed. Mary W. Tileston (Boston, 1884); Pusey's own text not traced, Tileston, April 4, last reading; also Coit, The Message of Man (1902), p. 140, ch. "Do little things as if great", no. 18.
Пёзей is E. B. Pusey. The Russian follows the English closely; 'suspects he ought to do' becomes 'feels he ought to do'. Tolstoy most likely took it from Coit's The Message of Man, which is on his source list in the Jubilee commentary. Tileston printed it first (1884), and neither anthology names the Pusey sermon or letter it comes from.
Translation note. Tolstoy kept Pusey’s words closely, so Pusey’s own English is printed here (ruling 1); Tolstoy’s Russian, translated, is in the source panel.
3. Ты не обязан доводить работу до конца, но и не должен уклоняться от нее.
Поручивший тебе работу надежен.
3. You are not bound to finish the work, but neither may you shirk it.
He who gave you the work is to be trusted.
From Pirkei Avot · shortened by Tolstoy .
Original · Hebrewלֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה.
וְנֶאֱמָן הוּא בַעַל מְלַאכְתְּךָ שֶׁיְּשַׁלֵּם לְךָ שְׂכַר פְּעֻלָּתֶךָ.
Source text: sefaria.orgIn English · Joseph I. Gorfinkle, 1913It is not thy duty to complete the work, but neither art thou free to desist from it; …
… faithful is thy Employer to pay thee the reward of thy labor; …
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Pirkei Avot (Mishnah), 2:16 (Sefaria; 2:21 in Gorfinkle and Taylor).
A saying of Rabbi Tarfon in the Mishnah (Avot is not Gemara, though often called 'Talmud'). Tolstoy keeps the first clause whole but cuts 'faithful is thy Employer' off before 'to pay thee the reward of thy labour', and drops the reward for much Torah study and the reward of the righteous in the world to come, so the sentence no longer promises wages. Gorfinkle (1913) is used for the English; Taylor's 1877/1897 text could not be consulted.
4. Если человек не считает себя призванным к исполнению поручения, посольства, он не может быть просвещенным человеком.
4. A man who does not regard himself as called to carry out a commission, an envoy’s mission, cannot be an enlightened man.
From Analects · reworded by Tolstoy .
Not in Leo Tolstoy as EditorThe change from Heaven’s decree to a personal mission is in Pauthier’s French translation, which Tolstoy followed word for word.
What Tolstoy read · G. Pauthier, 1846Si l'on ne se croit pas chargé de remplir une mission, un mandat, on ne peut pas être considéré comme un homme supérieur.
Source text: gutenberg.orgIn English · James Legge, 1861The Master said, 'Without recognising the ordinances of Heaven, it is impossible to be a superior man.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Analects (Lunyu), XX.3.1.
The last saying of the Analects: 'without knowing ming (Heaven's decree), one cannot be a junzi'. Tolstoy translates Pauthier word for word ('chargé de remplir une mission, un mandat' = 'призванным к исполнению поручения, посольства'; 'homme supérieur' = 'просвещенный человек'), so the shift from knowing Heaven's decree to feeling oneself charged with a personal mission is Pauthier's reading, not Tolstoy's. The signature 'Китайская мудрость' (unchanged by the Jubilee editors, who elsewhere corrected 'Конфуций' to 'Китайская мудрость') hides that this one is Confucius himself.
5. Человек познает себя не думая, но действуя. Только в усилиях исполнить должное он узнает себе цену.
5. A man comes to know himself not by thinking but by acting. Only in the effort to do what he ought does he learn his own worth.
From Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre · close to the original .
Original · GermanWie kann man sich selbst kennen lernen? Durch Betrachten niemals, wohl aber durch Handeln. Versuche deine Pflicht zu tun, und du weißt gleich, was an dir ist.
Source text: gutenberg.orgIn English · T. Bailey Saunders, 1893How can a man come to know himself? Never by thinking, but by doing. Try to do your duty, and you will know at once what you are worth.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (1829), "Betrachtungen im Sinne der Wanderer"; also in Maximen und Reflexionen, Book II, "Betrachtungen im Sinne der Wanderer", section "Kunst, Ethisches, Natur", 2nd maxim (Saunders, Maxims and Reflections, I, no. 2).
Goethe's question and answer become two statements; "not by contemplating but by acting" and "try to do your duty and you will know at once what is in you" are kept, "what is in you" rendered as "his worth" (as Saunders also reads it). The Gutenberg German uses modernized spelling ("tun").
6. Перенести свое я из телесного в духовное — значит сознательно желать только духовного. Тело мое может желать телесного, но душа не желает и не хочет желать ничего телесного, но не может уйти из тела точно так же, как я не желал бы того, чтобы меня тянуло к земле, но, что бы я ни делал, где бы я ни был, я не уйду от этого. И так же, как, несмотря на то, что тело мое не переставая тянется к земле, я отделяюсь от нее, двигаюсь, хожу, прыгаю, в этом моя телесная жизнь; то же самое с душою и телом. Тело не переставая тянет меня к себе, а я отделяюсь от него, даже пользуюсь им, живу духовно. В этом моя истинная жизнь.
6. To transfer one’s I from the bodily to the spiritual means to desire, consciously, only what is spiritual. My body may desire bodily things, but the soul does not desire, and does not want to desire, anything bodily; yet it cannot leave the body — just as I might not wish to be drawn toward the earth, but whatever I do and wherever I am, I cannot escape that pull. And just as, though my body is drawn toward the earth without ceasing, I part from it — I move, walk, jump — and in this is my bodily life, so it is with the soul and the body. The body draws me toward itself without ceasing, and I part from it, even make use of it, and live spiritually. In this is my true life.
Ничто так не вредит нравственному совершенствованию, как пренебрежение к делам, которые считаются неважными в мирском смысле.
Nothing so hinders moral perfection as disregard for the deeds the world counts unimportant.
Translation note. Совершенствование is Tolstoy’s term for the lifelong striving toward perfection, not “improvement”; rendered “moral perfection” here.
Tolstoy TodayТолстой сегодня · tolstoytoday.org/october/26