「 As a Man Thinketh 」を現代の米国英語で、中学3年生レベルの語彙と文法をコンセプトに英訳を作成しています。
第三章「EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON HEALTH AND THE BODY」です。原文と日本語解説もつけています。
Effect of Thought on Health and the Body (Modernized Version)
① The body obeys the mind. It does what the mind decides, whether the choice is made on purpose or not. If the mind is filled with bad thoughts, the body quickly becomes sick and weak. But if the mind has happy and beautiful thoughts, the body becomes young and full of beauty.
② Disease and health come from thoughts, just like circumstances. Sickly thoughts make the body weak and sick. It is known that fear can kill a person as fast as a bullet, and it still kills many people slowly but surely. People who always fear sickness often fall ill. Anxiety weakens the body, easily letting disease in. Impure thoughts, even if not put into action, can break the nervous system.
③ Strong, pure, and happy thoughts make the body lively and graceful. The body is delicate and changes easily; moreover, it quickly reacts to thoughts. Good or bad habits of thinking always affect the body.
④ As long as people keep thinking bad thoughts, their blood will stay dirty and poisoned. A clean heart brings a clean life and a good body. A dirty heart brings a dirty life and a bad body. Thought is the source of action, life, and all they express. If you make the source clean, everything will become clean.
⑤ Changing your diet will not help if you don’t change your thoughts. When a person makes his thoughts clean, he no longer wants bad food.
⑥ Clean thoughts make clean habits. A saint who does not wash his body is not a real saint. Someone who keeps his thoughts strong and clean does not have to worry about bad germs.
⑦ If you want to protect your body, protect your mind. If you want to make your body new again, make your mind beautiful. Bad thoughts like hate, jealousy, sadness, and hopelessness take away the health and beauty of the body. An angry face does not come by accident; it is made by angry thoughts. Wrinkles that hurt your looks are made by foolishness, strong emotions, and pride.
⑧ I know a woman who is ninety-six years old but has a face like a girl. I also know a man who is much younger than middle age, but he has a rough and unhappy face. The woman’s face comes from a kind and happy heart. The man’s face comes from anger and unhappiness.
⑨ Just like you cannot have a sweet and healthy home unless you let fresh air and sunlight into your rooms, you cannot have a strong body and a bright, happy, or calm face unless you let thoughts of joy, kindness, and peace freely into your mind.
⑩ On the faces of old people, some wrinkles are made by kindness, some by strong and pure thoughts, and some by strong emotions. Who cannot tell the difference? For people who have lived rightly, old age is calm, peaceful, and soft, like the setting sun. I recently saw a philosopher on his deathbed. He was old only in age, not in spirit. He died as sweetly and peacefully as he had lived.
⑪ There is no doctor better than cheerful thoughts to help cure the body. There is no comfort better than goodwill to clear away sadness and sorrow. If you always think bad thoughts like hate, mistrust, doubt, and jealousy, you are living in a prison you made by yourself. But if you think kindly of everyone, stay cheerful with everyone, and patiently try to find something good in everyone, such unselfish thoughts are like the gates to heaven. If you live every day with peaceful thoughts toward all living things, great peace will come into your own life.
Effect of Thought on Health and the Body (Original text)
(Based on As a Man Thinketh by James Allen)
① The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed. At the bidding of unlawful thoughts the body sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the command of glad and beautiful thoughts it becomes clothed with youthfulness and beauty.
servant（使用人、しもべ） deliberately（意図的に） bidding（命令） unlawful（不法な） decay（衰退、腐敗） clothed→clothe（覆う）
② Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought. Sickly thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body. Thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as a bullet, and they are continually killing thousands of people just as surely though less rapidly. The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the entrance of disease; while impure thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will soon shatter the nervous system.
circumstance（状況） rooted（根付いた） sickly（病弱な） express（表現する） bullet（弾丸） continually（絶えず） anxiety（不安） demoralize（士気をくじく） indulge（ふける） shatter（粉々にする） nervous system（神経系）
③ Strong, pure, and happy thoughts build up the body in vigour and grace. The body is a delicate and plastic instrument, which responds readily to the thoughts by which it is impressed, and habits of thought will produce their own effects, good or bad, upon it.
vigour（活力） grace（優雅さ） delicate（繊細な） plastic（柔軟な） readily（すぐに、たやすく） impress（印象づける） habit（習慣） effect（影響、効果）
④ Men will continue to have impure and poisoned blood, so long as they propagate unclean thoughts. Out of a clean heart comes a clean life and a clean body. Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and a corrupt body. Thought is the fount of action, life, and manifestation; make the fountain pure, and all will be pure.
impure（不純な） propagate（広める） unclean（不潔な） defiled（汚れた） corrupt（堕落した） fount（源） manifestation（現れ） fountain（泉、源）
⑤ Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food.
diet（食事） desire（望む）
⑥ Clean thoughts make clean habits. The so-called saint who does not wash his body is not a saint. He who has strengthened and purified his thoughts does not need to consider the malevolent microbe.
so-called（いわゆる） saint（聖人） malevolent（悪意のある） microbe（微生物）
⑦ If you would protect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew your body, beautify your mind. Thoughts of malice, envy, disappointment, despondency, rob the body of its health and grace. A sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts. Wrinkles that mar are drawn by folly, passion, and pride.
beautify（美しくする） malice（悪意） envy（うらやましさ、嫉妬） despondency（落胆） rob（奪う） grace（優雅さ） sour（不機嫌な） wrinkle（しわ） mar（損なう） folly（愚かさ） passion（激情）
⑧ I know a woman of ninety-six who has the bright, innocent face of a girl. I know a man well under middle age whose face is drawn into inharmonious contours. The one is the result of a sweet and sunny disposition; the other is the outcome of passion and discontent.
innocent（無邪気な） contour（輪郭） disposition（気質、性格） outcome（結果） passion（激情） discontent（不満）
⑨ As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you admit the air and sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a bright, happy, or serene countenance can only result from the free admittance into the mind of thoughts of joy and goodwill and serenity.
wholesome（健康によい） abode（住まい） serene（穏やかな） countenance（顔つき、表情） admittance（入ること） goodwill（好意） serenity（静けさ、穏やかさ）
⑩ On the faces of the aged there are wrinkles made by sympathy, others by strong and pure thought, and others are carved by passion: who cannot distinguish them? With those who have lived righteously, age is calm, peaceful, and softly mellowed, like the setting sun. I have recently seen a philosopher on his deathbed. He was not old except in years. He died as sweetly and peacefully as he had lived.
sympathy（共感） carve（刻む） passion（激情） distinguish（見分ける） righteously（正しく） mellow（穏やかにする） philosopher（哲学者） deathbed（死の床） except in（〜を除いて）
⑪ There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no comforter to compare with goodwill for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow. To live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy, is to be confined in a self made prison-hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all—such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor.
physician（医者） dissipate（散らす、消す） ill（病気、害） comforter（慰めるもの） disperse（追い払う） grief（深い悲しみ） sorrow（悲しみ） cynicism（冷笑、皮肉） suspicion（疑い） confined（閉じ込められた） prison-hole（牢獄） portal（入口） dwell（住む） abounding（豊かな） creature（生き物）
There is no A like B for ～ing（〜するにはBほど良いAはない）
There is no A to compare with B for ～ing（〜するにはBに匹敵するAはない）
和訳の要約
現代英語版は、中学レベルの英語ですが、分かりにくい部分（特に詩の部分）があるかもしれません。
この要約でアウトラインを掴んでおくとスッと頭に入るはずです！
これは名言と思える箇所は太字にしておきます。
心と思いが体に与える影響
体は心のしもべであり、思いに従って形作られます。
清らかで喜びに満ちた思いは、体に若々しさと美しさをもたらし、不正や悪意に満ちた思いは、病と衰えを招きます。
病気も健康も、すべては思いの中に根ざしており、体は心の映し鏡であるといえましょう。
清らかな思いが導く再生と平和
体を守りたければ、まず心を守らねばなりません。
悪意や嫉妬、不安に満ちた思いは体の力を蝕み、顔に刻まれるしわさえも、心の乱れの現れです。
正しく清らかに生きる者は、年を重ねても穏やかに輝き、沈みゆく太陽のように静かに人生を閉じてゆきます。
思いの清浄さこそが天への門
朗らかな心持ちこそが名医であり、好意こそが最も深い慰めです。
悪意や疑いに囚われれば、心は自ら作った牢獄に閉じ込められてしまいます
しかし、すべての存在に善意を向け、喜びを見出そうと努めるなら、その思いは天国への扉となり豊かな平和が降り注ぐでしょう。
まとめ
本ブログのポイントは、原文を読みやすい現代英語でリライトした英訳版です。
今回は詩的な内容を含んでおり少々苦労しました。
これをしっかり読み込めば自己啓発の根本である「思考は現実化する」「人は考えた通りの人になる」が理解できるようになります。
4-1に続きます。
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