13Septemberсентября · 13-е сентября
Мудрый человек не ищет изменения своего положения, потому что знает, что исполнение закона бога — закона любви — возможно во всяком положении.
The wise do not seek to change their situation, because they know that fulfilling the law of God — the law of love — is possible in any situation.
1. Мудрец ищет всего в себе, безумец — всего в других.
1. The sage seeks everything in himself; the fool, everything in others.
From The Analects · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedThe superior man and the mean man (in Pauthier’s French, which Tolstoy probably followed, “l’homme supérieur” and “l’homme vulgaire et sans mérite”) become “The sage” and “the fool,” so a contrast of moral standing becomes one of wisdom and folly.
What Tolstoy read · G. Pauthier, Confucius et Mencius: Les quatre livres de philosophie morale et politique …Le Philosophe dit: L'homme supérieur ne demande rien qu'à lui-même; l'homme vulgaire et sans mérite demande tout aux autres.
Source text: gutenberg.orgIn English · James Legge, 1861The Master said, 'What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others.'
Source text: gutenberg.orgTolstoy’s own version · Путь жизниМудрец ищет всего в себе, безумец — всего в другом.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. The Analects (Lunyu), XV.20 (Legge; Pauthier ch. XV, § 20).
Analects XV.20, probably in Pauthier's French, which the Circle's other Analects entries follow: «L'homme supérieur ne demande rien qu'à lui-même; l'homme vulgaire et sans mérite demande tout aux autres» (the superior man asks nothing except of himself; the common man without merit asks everything of others). Tolstoy's «всего … всего» (everything … everything) answers Pauthier's «rien … tout», which the Chinese lacks: 君子求諸己，小人求諸人 ('the superior man seeks it in himself, the small man seeks it in others'; Legge: 'What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others'). The change is in the second man: the small man (小人; Pauthier «l'homme vulgaire et sans mérite») becomes «безумец» (the madman, the fool), so a contrast of moral standing becomes one of wisdom and folly, the superior man (君子) being «Мудрец» (the sage). Not in Thoughts of Wise Men (1903). The Path of Life (1910) prints it again, signed «Конфуций», with «в другом» (in another) for «в других» (in others). The attribution is right.
2. Я не жаловался на судьбу и не роптал. Но один раз, когда я был разут и не на что было купить обуви, я возроптал. Я вошел тогда с тяжелым сердцем в большую мечеть в Куфа, и вот в мечети я увидал человека без ног. И я возблагодарил бога за то, что у меня были обе ноги, а только не было башмаков, чтобы обуть их.
2. I did not complain of my fate or murmur. But once, when I was barefoot and had nothing to buy shoes with, I murmured. Then, with a heavy heart, I went into the great mosque at Kufa, and there in the mosque I saw a man without legs. And I gave thanks to God that I had both legs, and lacked only shoes to put on them.
From Gulistan · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedGladwin’s “I offered up praise and thanksgiving to God for his bounty, and bore with patience the want of shoes” becomes “I gave thanks to God that I had both legs, and lacked only shoes to put on them”: the reason for the thanks is spelled out, and the patience goes; “nor murmured at the ordinances of Heaven, excepting once” becomes a statement and its exception, “or murmur. But once … I murmured.”
What Tolstoy read · Moncure Daniel Conway, The Sacred Anthology: A Book of Ethnical ScripturesI never complained of the vicissitudes of fortune, …
… once, when my feet were bare, and I had not the means of procuring myself shoes. I entered the great mosque at Cufah with a heavy heart, when I beheld a …
… man who had no feet. I offered up praise and thanksgiving to God for his bounty, and bore with patience the want of shoes.
Source text: archive.orgOriginal · Persianهرگز از دورِ زمان ننالیده بودم و روی از گردشِ آسمان در هم نکشیده، مگر وقتی که پایم برهنه مانده بود و استطاعتِ پای‌پوشی نداشتم.
به جامعِ کوفه در‌آمدم دلتنگ، یکی را دیدم که پای نداشت.
سپاسِ نعمتِ حق به جای آوردم و بر بی‌کفشی صبر کردم.
Source text: api.ganjoor.netIn English · Francis Gladwin, 1806I NEVER complained of the vicissitudes of fortune, nor murmured at the ordinances of Heaven, excepting once, when my feet were bare, and I had not the means of procuring myself shoes. I entered the great mosque at Cufah with a heavy heart, when I beheld a man who had no feet.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Gulistan (1258), chapter III, «On the Excellence of Contentment», ch. III, story 19 in Gladwin (18 in Ganjoor); Conway, The Sacred Anthology (1874), no. DXX, «Contentment», pp. 318–319.
Saadi's story of the shoes (Gulistan III), in Gladwin's English as Conway's Sacred Anthology prints it, without the verses that follow in the Gulistan: Conway ends where Tolstoy ends. The story is kept close until its last sentence. Gladwin's 'I offered up praise and thanksgiving to God for his bounty, and bore with patience the want of shoes' (Saadi: «سپاسِ نعمتِ حق به جای آوردم و بر بی‌کفشی صبر کردم», I gave thanks for God's bounty and bore my shoelessness patiently) becomes «И я возблагодарил бога за то, что у меня были обе ноги, а только не было башмаков, чтобы обуть их» (and I thanked God that I had both feet and only lacked shoes to put on them): the reason for the thanks is spelled out, and the patience goes. Earlier, 'nor murmured at the ordinances of Heaven, excepting once' is split into «и не роптал. Но один раз … я возроптал» (and did not murmur. But once … I murmured). The signature «Мади» is no known name; the Jubilee index lists it without identification (vol. 42, p. 41). It may be a misreading of «Саади»; the text is certainly Saadi's. The English is Gladwin's translation of 1806, in the Boston edition of 1865 that Conway used.
Translation note. Kufa is a city in Iraq, on the Euphrates.
3. Не выходя из ворот и не глядя в окно, разумный человек знает то, чтò ему нужно знать, сознавая в себе небесный разум. Чем дальше ходишь, тем меньше знаешь. Поэтому разумный человек, не путешествуя, имеет знание, не видя вещей, определяет их и, не работая, совершает великое.
3. Without going out of the gate and without looking out of the window, the reasonable man knows what he needs to know, being conscious of the heavenly reason within him. The farther you go, the less you know. Therefore the reasonable man has knowledge without traveling, defines things without seeing them, and accomplishes great things without working.
From Daodejing · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedForesight of the world’s course becomes the knowledge a person needs, and seeing the Way of Heaven becomes awareness of reason within: Carus’s “The world’s course I prognosticate … The heavenly Reason I contemplate” (in Tolstoy’s 1903 version, the sage “knows what will be, contemplating the heavenly reason”) becomes “the reasonable man knows what he needs to know, being conscious of the heavenly reason within him,” and the holy man also becomes “the reasonable man.”
What Tolstoy read · Paul Carus, Lao-Tze's Tao-Teh-KingWithout passing out of the gate The world's course I prognosticate. Without peeping through the window The heavenly Reason I contemplate.
The further one goes, The less one knows.
Therefore the holy man does not travel, and yet he has knowledge.
He does not see the things, and yet he defines them. He does not labor, and yet he completes.
Source text: archive.orgOriginal · Classical Chinese不出戶，知天下；不闚牖，見天道。
其出彌遠，其知彌少。
是以聖人不行而知，不見而名，
不為而成。
Source text: zh.wikisource.orgIn English · James Legge, 1891Without going outside his door, one understands (all that takes place) under the sky; without looking out from his window, one sees the Tao of Heaven.
The farther that one goes out (from himself), the less he knows.
Therefore the sages got their knowledge without travelling; gave their (right) names to things without seeing them; and accomplished their ends without any purpose of doing so.
Source text: gutenberg.orgTolstoy’s own version · Мысли мудрых людей на каждый деньНе выходя из ворот и не глядя в окно, мудрец знает, что будет, созерцая небесный разум.
Поэтому святой человек, не путешествуя, имеет знание, не видя вещей, определяет их и, не работая, совершает великое.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Daodejing, ch. 47 (Carus: 'Viewing the Distant').
Daodejing 47 in Tolstoy's own Russian from Carus's English (1898), printed in Thoughts of Wise Men (1903), 20 November; the Jubilee vol. 40 commentary says the Lao-Tzu translations in that book are Tolstoy's. The 1903 version follows Carus: 'Without passing out of the gate the world's course I prognosticate. Without peeping through the window the heavenly Reason I contemplate. The further one goes, the less one knows. Therefore the holy man does not travel, and yet he has knowledge. He does not see the things, and yet he defines them. He does not labor, and yet he completes.' For the Circle Tolstoy changes what the sage knows and how: «мудрец знает, что будет, созерцая небесный разум» (the sage knows what will be, contemplating the heavenly reason; Carus 'the world's course I prognosticate … the heavenly Reason I contemplate') becomes «разумный человек знает то, что ему нужно знать, сознавая в себе небесный разум» (the reasonable man knows what he needs to know, being conscious of the heavenly reason in himself), and «святой человек» (the holy man; Carus 'the holy man', 聖人) becomes «разумный человек» again. Foresight of the world's course becomes the knowledge a person needs, and contemplation of Heaven's Way becomes awareness of reason within. The Chinese says 不出戶，知天下；不闚牖，見天道 ('without going out of the door, one knows all under heaven; without looking through the window, one sees the Way of Heaven'). «Совершает великое» (accomplishes great things) for 不為而成 ('without acting, he completes'; Carus 'he completes') was already in 1903.
4. Двумя вещами человек никогда не должен огорчаться: тем, чему он может помочь, и тем, чему не может помочь.
4. Over two things a man should never grieve: what he can help, and what he cannot help.
“Every Body’s Book of Proverbs and Quotations”.
From Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, compiled by Thomas F… · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changed“Two things a man should never be angry at” becomes “Over two things a man should never grieve”: the proverb keeps its form, and anger becomes grief.
“Every Body’s Book of Proverbs and Quotations”’s own words5335 Two things a man should never be angry at, what he can help, and what he cannot help …
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, compiled by Thomas Fuller, M.D. (1732), no. 5335; the London edition of 1817.
An English proverb, the 5335th of Fuller's collection: 'Two things a man should never be angry at, what he can help, and what he cannot help.' Tolstoy keeps its form and changes its verb: 'be angry at' becomes 'be grieved by' (огорчаться). Tolstoy's signature names the anthology he read, which the Jubilee list of sources gives as 'Everybody's Book of Proverbs and Quotations, London 1890' (compiled by W. H. Howe, as a sale catalogue of 1916 on archive.org lists it, 'Howe (W. H.). Everybody's Book of Proverbs'); no copy of it was found online. Every printing among the first 25 of archive.org's 248 full-text hits for the proverb (1846 to the present) reads 'be angry at', so the change is probably Tolstoy's. Fuller compiled proverbs current in his day, and the saying is not his own, so the signature stands. No printable, for the changed verb.
5. Если человек недоволен своим положением, он может изменить его двумя средствами: или улучшить условия своей жизни, или улучшить свое душевное состояние. Первое не всегда, второе всегда в его власти.
5. If you are dissatisfied with your situation, you can change it by two means: either improve the conditions of your life or improve the state of your soul. The first is not always in your power; the second always is.
6. С мыслями своими обходись как с гостями, а с желаниями — как с детьми.
6. Treat your thoughts as guests, and your desires as children.
From Proverbes chinois · close to the original .
What Tolstoy read · Paul Perny, Proverbes chinois, recueillis et mis en ordreAccueillez vos pensées comme des hôtes et traitez vos désirs comme des enfants.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Proverbes chinois (1869), Part II, Proverbes chinois sans texte, p. 117, no. 43.
Perny's French, closely: «Accueillez vos pensées comme des hôtes et traitez vos désirs comme des enfants» (receive your thoughts as guests and treat your desires as children); Tolstoy's one verb, «обходись» (deal with), covers Perny's two. Paul Perny, a missionary of the Missions Étrangères, prints it in the second part of his collection, the proverbs given without Chinese text, so no Chinese original was found. August's unplaced «Китайская пословица» (8-27.5, the roads to glory, fortune, and virtue) is on the page before, no. 36: «On va à la gloire par le palais, à la fortune par le marché, à la vertu par les déserts».
7. Человек бывает несчастлив, потому что в нем живет бесконечное, которое, несмотря на все свои усилия, он не может похоронить под временным.
7. Man is unhappy because there lives in him the infinite, which, for all his efforts, he cannot bury under the temporal.
From Sartor Resartus · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedTolstoy leaves out “as I construe, comes of his Greatness,” so man’s unhappiness is no longer called the sign of his greatness; “cannot quite bury” loses “quite,” and “the Finite” becomes “the temporal.”
Carlyle’s own wordsMan's Unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his Greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Sartor Resartus (1833–34), Book II, ch. IX 'The Everlasting Yea', Book II, ch. IX, before the Shoeblack whom all Europe cannot make happy.
Close in its image, cut at its head. Tolstoy leaves out 'as I construe, comes of his Greatness', so the unhappiness is no longer traced to man's greatness: «Человек бывает несчастлив, потому что в нем живет бесконечное» (man is unhappy because the infinite lives in him). 'With all his cunning' becomes «несмотря на все свои усилия» (in spite of all his efforts); 'cannot quite bury' becomes «не может похоронить» (cannot bury), without 'quite'; 'the Finite' becomes «временным» (the temporal). The same chapter gave February's 2-29.5, March's 3-21.5, and April's 4-20.6.
8. Постарайся устанавливать в себе внутреннюю тишину и то совершенное молчание и уст и сердца, когда мы больше не заняты нашими несовершенными мыслями и тщеславными суждениями, но когда сам бог говорит в нас и мы в простоте сердца прислушиваемся к выражению его воли для того, чтобы, при молчании нашем, мы бы могли исполнить его одну волю.
8. Try to establish within yourself an inner stillness and that perfect silence of both lips and heart when we are no longer occupied with our imperfect thoughts and vain judgments, but when God himself speaks in us and we, in simplicity of heart, listen for the expression of his will, so that in our silence we may fulfill his will alone.
From The New-England Tragedies · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedEdith’s chant in Longfellow’s verse drama becomes counsel to the reader: “Let us, then, labor for an inward stillness” becomes “Try to establish within yourself an inner stillness,” “an inward healing” drops out, and “God alone speaks in us” becomes “God himself speaks in us.”
Longfellow’s own wordsLet us, then, labor for an inward stillness, — An inward stillness and an inward healing ; That perfect silence where the lips and heart Are still, and we no longer entertain Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions, But God alone speaks in us, and we wait In singleness of heart, that we may know His will, and in the silence of our spirits, That we may do His will, and do that only !
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. The New-England Tragedies (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1868), 'John Endicott', Act I, scene iii, p. 21, Edith's chant at the Quakers' meeting in Upsall's house.
The last nine lines of Edith's chant, a Quaker's words in Longfellow's verse drama, made prose and changed in three places. 'Let us, then, labor for an inward stillness' becomes 'Try to establish in yourself an inner stillness' (Постарайся устанавливать в себе внутреннюю тишину), so the speaker's 'us' becomes a counsel to the reader, though Tolstoy's 'we' returns in the next clause; 'an inward stillness and an inward healing' loses 'an inward healing'. 'Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions' becomes 'our imperfect thoughts and vainglorious judgments' (тщеславными суждениями). 'But God alone speaks in us' becomes 'but when God himself speaks in us' (сам бог), so 'alone' is lost. 'We wait in singleness of heart, that we may know His will' becomes 'we in simplicity of heart listen for the expression of His will'; 'and in the silence of our spirits, that we may do His will, and do that only' becomes 'so that, in our silence, we might fulfil His one will'. The chant's first four lines (we grope in the dark near the partition-wall of Life and Death) are left out. The lines circulated on their own under Longfellow's name, often as a prayer, so Tolstoy may have met them in an anthology; none was identified. No printable.
Чем больше человек недоволен людьми и обстоятельствами и чем более доволен собою, тем он дальше от мудрости.
The more dissatisfied we are with people and circumstances, and the more satisfied with ourselves, the farther we are from wisdom.
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