Настольная книга джентльмена,

[diejacobsleiter]

сочиненная для пользы юношества лордом Коном Фуцием, графом Луширским...

Leonard A. Lyall в начале ХХ века сделал перевод (pdf, txt), который, думаю, автору пришелся бы по нраву более всех остальных, когда-либо сделанных. Так и вижу Конфуция, добродушно ухмыляющегося в бороду или с приятным удивлением поднимающего бровь.

Перевод сделан с хорошим знанием языка, довольно точно, но с несколькими великолепными вольностями. Цзюнь-цзы там просто и нахально переведено как gentleman, жэнь как love и т.д. Переводы кратки и элегантны, как афоризмы Оскара Уайльда, как тексты самого Конфуция. Живой, легкий, истинно-джентльменский китайский английский язык. Перевод точен по смыслу, это редкость; но он точен и в стиле, а это почти чудо. 

Вот подборка фраз об «истинно благородном человеке», цзюнь-цзы, почитайте. Она звучит как викторианская брошюрка для воспитания юных джентльменов.

·       A gentleman is consistent, not changeless.

·       A gentleman … may be cheated, but not fooled.

·       A gentleman is not a vessel.

·       To live unknown and not fret, is not that to be a gentleman?

·       A gentleman has no likes or dislikes below heaven. He follows right.

·       A gentleman is broad and fair; the small man takes sides and is narrow.

·       A gentleman is calm and spacious; the small man is always fretting.

·       The gentleman is learned in right; the small man is learned in gain.

·       A gentleman is high-minded, not proud; the small man is proud, but not high-minded.

·       A gentleman wishes to be slow to speak and quick to do.

·       A gentleman puts words into deeds first, and follows these up with words.

·       A gentleman asks of himself, the small man asks of others.

·       A gentleman heeds the roots.

·       A gentleman is firm, not quarrelsome; a friend, not a partisan.

·       A gentleman does not raise a man for his words, nor spurn the speech for the man.

·       By breadth of reading and the ties of courtesy, a gentleman is kept, too, from false paths.

·       Right is the stuff of which a gentleman is made. Done with courtesy, spoken with humility, rounded with truth, right makes a gentleman.

·       A gentleman changes thrice. Looking up to him he seems stern; as we draw near, he warms; but his speech, when we hear it, is sharp.

·       The gentleman cherishes mind, the small man cherishes dirt. Gentlemen trust in the law, the small man trusts in favour.

·       …A gentleman must be ready to put names into speech and words into deed. A gentleman is nowise careless of his words.

·       A gentleman is kind, but not wasteful; he burdens, but he does not embitter; he is covetous, but not greedy; high-minded, but not proud; stern, but not fierce.

·       A gentleman knows neither sorrow nor fear. He searches his heart: it is blameless; so why should he sorrow, what should he fear?

·       A gentleman will not be looked up to unless he is staid, nor will his learning be sound. Put faithfulness and truth first; have no friends unlike thyself; be not ashamed to mend thy faults.

·       A gentleman has three things to guard against. In the days of thy youth, ere thy strength is steady, beware of lust. When manhood is reached, in the fulness of strength, beware of strife. In old age, when thy strength is broken, beware of greed.

·       A gentleman has nine aims. To see clearly; to understand what he hears; to be warm in manner, dignified in bearing, faithful of speech, keen at work; to ask when in doubt; in anger to think of difficulties; and in sight of gain to think of right.

Comments

[crapulous]

Очень красиво.

[diejacobsleiter]

Да, великолепный текст.