3Septemberсентября · 3-е сентября
Бог непостижим для человеческого ума. Мы знаем только то, что он есть, и хотим или не хотим этого, знаем это несомненно.
God is incomprehensible to the human mind. We know only that he is, and whether we want to or not, we know this beyond doubt.
1. Я прежде видел явления жизни, не думая о том, откуда эти явления и почему я вижу их.
Когда же я стал думать об основной причине всего, я пришел к убеждению, что источник всего есть свет разумения, и я так увлекся этой мыслью, что свел всё к одному и совершенно удовлетворился признанием одного разумения началом всего.
Но потом я увидал, что разумение есть свет, доходящий до меня через какое-то матовое стекло. Свет я вижу, но то, что дает этот свет, я не знаю, хотя и знаю, что оно есть.
То же, что есть источник света, освещающего меня, чего я не знаю, но про существование чего я несомненно знаю, и есть бог.
1. Formerly I saw the phenomena of life without thinking about where these phenomena came from or why I saw them.
But when I began to think about the fundamental cause of everything, I came to the conviction that the source of everything is the light of understanding; and I was so carried away by this thought that I reduced everything to this one thing and was entirely satisfied with recognizing understanding alone as the principle of everything.
But then I saw that understanding is a light that reaches me through a kind of frosted glass. The light I see, but what gives this light I do not know, though I do know that it is.
And that which is the source of the light that illumines me, which I do not know, but of whose existence I know beyond doubt, is God.
2. Не пытайся проникнуть в сущность божественной природы; безбожно желать познать то, что не открыто богом.
2. Do not try to penetrate the essence of the divine nature; it is godless to wish to know what God has not revealed.
From Fragments of uncertain plays · close to the original .
In English · Craufurd Tait Ramage, Beautiful Thoughts from Greek Authors, 1864Do not search into the essence of the Divine nature; for thou art impious, wishing to know what God has not revealed.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Fragments of uncertain plays, Ramage's reference "Ex Incert. Comœd. p. 272" (Meineke's page).
Tolstoy translates Ramage's English closely: "Do not search into the essence of the Divine nature; for thou art impious, wishing to know what God has not revealed." «Не пытайся проникнуть в сущность божественной природы» is "Do not search into the essence of the Divine nature"; «безбожно желать познать то, что не открыто богом» (it is godless to wish to know what God has not disclosed) makes Ramage's "thou art impious, wishing to know" impersonal. Ramage's English is itself free: the two Greek lines say "Who God is, do not wish to learn; you are impious, wishing to learn of one who does not wish it" (τὸν οὐ θέλοντα, him who is unwilling), which Ramage renders "what God has not revealed". The scan reads "Tis" for Τίς in the first line, so only the second is quoted. The Jubilee index names Menander (vol. 42, p. 13).
3. Верь в бога, служи ему, но не пытайся познать его сущность; ты ничего не получишь от твоего тщетного усилия, кроме разочарования и усталости.
Не заботься даже о том, чтобы узнать, существует он или нет, служи ему, как будто он существует и везде присутствует. Больше ничего не нужно.
3. Believe in God, serve him, but do not try to know his essence; you will gain nothing from your vain effort but disappointment and weariness.
Do not even trouble to find out whether he exists or not; serve him as though he exists and is present everywhere. Nothing more is needed.
From Fragments of uncertain plays · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedAdds “Nothing more is needed,” and the reward of inquiry, “nothing for thy trouble except the labour of inquiry,” becomes “nothing from your vain effort but disappointment and weariness”; God, worshipped “as if He existed, and were present,” “is present everywhere.”
Original · Ancient GreekΘεὸν νόμιζε καὶ σέβου, ζήτει δὲ μὴ, …
… ὡς ὄντα τοῦτον καὶ παρόντ᾽ ἀεὶ σέβου.
Source text: archive.orgIn English · Craufurd Tait Ramage, Beautiful Thoughts from Greek Authors, 1864Believe that there is a God, worship Him, but do not inquire too curiously into His essence ; for thou wilt have nothing for thy trouble except the labour of inquiry. Do not care to know whether He exists or not; worship Him as if He existed, and were present.
Source text: archive.orgTolstoy’s own version · Для души. Изречения мыслителей разных стран и разных вековВерь в бога, служи ему, но не старайся узнать его.
Не заботься даже о том, чтобы узнать, есть он или нет его, — служи ему, как будто он есть всегда и во всем.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Fragments of uncertain plays, Ramage's reference "Ex Incert. Comœd. 25".
Tolstoy translates Ramage's English: "Believe that there is a God, worship Him, but do not inquire too curiously into His essence; for thou wilt have nothing for thy trouble except the labour of inquiry. Do not care to know whether He exists or not; worship Him as if He existed, and were present." Kept: «Верь в бога, служи ему» (believe in God, serve him), «не пытайся познать его сущность» (do not try to know his essence), and «Не заботься даже о том, чтобы узнать, существует он или нет» (do not even care to learn whether he exists or not), where Tolstoy adds «даже» (even). Changed: "thou wilt have nothing for thy trouble except the labour of inquiry" becomes «ты ничего не получишь от твоего тщетного усилия, кроме разочарования и усталости» (you will get nothing from your vain effort but disappointment and weariness); "present" becomes «везде присутствует» (present everywhere). Added: «Больше ничего не нужно» (nothing more is needed). The Greek: "Believe in God and worship him, but do not seek; for you have nothing more than the seeking. Whether he is or is not, do not wish to learn; worship him always as being and present." Ramage's scan garbles the second and third lines ("yap", "Bir ἐστιν"), so only the first and fourth are quoted. In «Для души» (1909), from the June of На каждый день, Tolstoy shortened it to two sentences, «не старайся узнать его» (do not try to know him) and «служи ему, как будто он есть всегда и во всем» (serve him as though he is always and in everything). The Jubilee index gives «Филемон» (vol. 42, p. 13).
4. Никто еще не проник в тайну великого начала. Никто не ступил шага вне самого себя. О ты, в поисках кого находится весь мир в смятении! Святой так же, как и порочный, нищий, так же, как и богатый, все одинаково далеки от возможности достигнуть тебя: имя твое звучит вместе с существованием всех, но все глухи; ты перед всеми глазами, но все слепы.
4. No one has yet penetrated the mystery of the great principle. No one has taken a step outside himself. O you, in search of whom the whole world is in turmoil! The saint as well as the vicious, the beggar as well as the rich, all are equally far from being able to reach you: your name sounds together with the existence of all, but all are deaf; you are before all eyes, but all are blind.
The Persian Khayyam, eleventh century.
From Quatrains ascribed to Omar Khayyam · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedConway’s “the saintly mendicant and the rich man,” after Nicolas’s “le derviche et le riche,” the dervish and the rich man, become “The saint as well as the vicious, the beggar as well as the rich”: the saintly beggar is split in two, and the vicious man is added, so the saint is as far from God as the vicious man.
What Tolstoy read · The Sacred AnthologyNo one has ever penetrated the secret of the great principle ; …
0 thou, in the search for whom a world is in dizziness and in distress !
… the saintly mendicant and the rich man are equally far …
… thy name blends with the existence of all, but all are deaf; thou art present under the eyes of all, but all are blind.
Source text: archive.orgOriginal · Persianکس مشکل اسرار اجل را نگشاد
کس یک قدم از دایره بیرون ننهاد
Source text: api.ganjoor.netIn English · E. H. Whinfield, 1883What sage the eternal tangle e'er unravelled, Or one short step beyond his nature travelled?
The world is baffled in its search for Thee, Wealth cannot find Thee, no, nor poverty ; …
Thou'rt very near us, but our ears are deaf, Our eyes are blinded that we may not see !
Source text: archive.orgAnother translation · Les quatrains de Khèyam, traduits du persan par J.-B. NicolasPersonne n'a pénétré les secrets du Principe ; personne n'a fait un pas en dehors de soi-même.
… le derviche et le riche sont également vides de moyens pour parvenir à toi : …
… ton nom est mêlé aux entretiens de tous, mais tous sont sourds; tu es présent aux yeux de tous, mais tous sont aveugles.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Quatrains ascribed to Omar Khayyam, Nicolas nos. 175 and 204; Conway (1874), no. CXIX, Ignorant Certainty, p. 73, margin 'Persian.' and '11th cent.' (as the scan reads them).
Two quatrains that Conway prints in one section, 'Ignorant Certainty', from Nicolas's French; Conway's margin reads 'Persian' and '11th cent.', which Tolstoy's signature repeats. Tolstoy takes the first sentence of the first quatrain closely ('No one has ever penetrated the secret of the great principle; no one has ever taken a step beyond himself'), leaves out the rest of it ('I observe, and I have seen only inadequacy, since a pupil looking up to his master — inadequacy in all of woman born'), and gives the second whole, with one change: 'the saintly mendicant and the rich man are equally far from the means of reaching thee' becomes «Святой так же, как и порочный, нищий, так же, как и богатый, все одинаково далеки от возможности достигнуть тебя» (the saint as well as the vicious man, the beggar as well as the rich, are all equally far from the possibility of reaching thee). Conway's saintly beggar is split into the saint and the beggar, and the vicious man is added. 'Thy name blends with the existence of all' is Conway's, and Tolstoy's «имя твое звучит вместе с существованием всех» follows it; Nicolas has «ton nom est mêlé aux entretiens de tous» (thy name is mixed in the talk of all), and his «le derviche et le riche» (the dervish and the rich man) is what Conway made 'the saintly mendicant'. So Tolstoy read Conway. The first quatrain is no. 82 of Khayyam's Rubaiyat on Ganjoor: 'no one has solved the riddle of the secrets of ajal (the appointed hour of death); no one has set a foot outside the circle; I look from the novice to the master: helplessness is in the hand of every one born of a mother'. Nicolas's «les secrets du Principe» suggests that his text read ازل (azal, eternity without beginning) for اجل. Whinfield (1883) gives both quatrains (nos. 190 and 247), the second from Nicolas's edition alone; its Persian was not found on Ganjoor, and the Persian pages of Nicolas's book are not legible in the scan.
5. Мы познаем существование бога не столько разумом, сколько сознанием той полной зависимости от него, в которой мы себя чувствуем, вроде того чувства, которое испытывает грудной ребенок на руках матери.
Ребенок не знает, кто держит, кто греет, кто кормит его, но знает, что есть этот кто-то, и мало того, что знает, — любит того, во власти кого он находится.
5. We come to know the existence of God not so much by reason as by the consciousness of that complete dependence on him in which we feel ourselves to be, a feeling like the one an infant at the breast has in its mother’s arms.
The child does not know who holds it, who warms it, who feeds it, but it knows that this someone exists, and more than knows — it loves the one in whose power it is.
6. Человек стремился сделаться подобным богу; жрецы сделали бога подобным человеку, и легкомыслие человеческое удовольствовалось этим представлением о боге.
6. Man strove to become like God; the priests made God like man, and human frivolity was content with this idea of God.
From Esquisses morales: pensées, réflexions et maximes · close to the original .
Original · FrenchL'homme voulait se faire semblable à Dieu; les prêtres ont fait Dieu semblable à l'homme ; et la vanité de l'esprit humain s'est contentée.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Esquisses morales: pensées, réflexions et maximes, 3rd ed., revised and enlarged (Paris: Techener, 1859), p. 32.
A maxim of Marie d'Agoult, who published as Daniel Stern, translated closely. 'La vanité de l’esprit humain s’est contentée' (the vanity of the human mind was content) becomes «легкомыслие человеческое удовольствовалось этим представлением о боге» (human frivolity was content with this idea of God): 'vanité' is rendered «легкомыслие» (frivolity, levity), and the idea of God is added as the object. 'Voulait' (wanted) is «стремился» (strove). The signature «Д’Агу» gives her name, and the Jubilee name index identifies «Дагу Мари (D’Agoult, 1805—1876)». How Tolstoy came to the maxim is not known; no English translation was found.
Translation note. «Д’Агу» is Marie d’Agoult, who wrote as Daniel Stern.
Не смущайся тем, что понятие бога выражено неясно тебе. Чем яснее оно выражено, тем оно дальше от истины и тем ненадежнее, как опора.
Do not be troubled that the idea of God is not clearly expressed for you. The more clearly it is expressed, the further it is from the truth and the less reliable it is as a support.
Translation note. The Russian italic is broken only at the comma; it is set here as one span.
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