「 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。
第四章「THOUGHT AND PURPOSE」です。原文と日本語解説もつけています。
Thought and Purpose (Modernized Version)
① You cannot achieve anything smart unless your thoughts are connected to a clear purpose. Most people let their shallow thoughts drift around in life. Not having an aim is bad, and if you want to steer clear of disaster and destruction, you must stop drifting.
② People who don’t have a clear purpose in life easily become victims of slight worries, fears, troubles, and self-pity. These are signs of weakness, and even though they take a different path, they lead surely to failure, sadness, and loss—because weakness cannot survive in a universe that is always making progress.
③ A person should have a clear and good goal in their heart and work hard to reach it. They should keep this goal at the center of their thoughts. The goal might be a big dream about becoming a better person, or it might be a simple goal in daily life. Whatever it is, they should keep thinking about it and not give up. They should treat this goal as the most important thing and do their best to make it come true. They should not let their thoughts drift into short dreams, wishes, or daydreams. This is the best way to build self-control and real mental focus. Even if they fail many times (which is normal until they get stronger), the strength they build inside will be their real success, and it will help them grow even more and win bigger victories in the future.
④ If someone isn’t ready to pursue a big goal yet, they should focus on doing their daily tasks the best they can, even if the task seems insignificant. By doing this, they learn how to stay focused and build strong willpower and energy. Once they can do this, there’s nothing they can’t achieve.
⑤ Even the weakest person, if they understand their own weakness and truly believe that strength comes only through effort and practice, will start trying right away. By adding effort to effort, patience to patience, and strength to strength, they will keep growing and will one day become godlike strong.
⑥ Even someone who is physically weak can become strong through careful and patient training. In the same way, a person with weak thoughts can make them strong by practicing right thinking.
⑦ When you throw away aimlessness and weakness and start thinking with purpose, you step into the group of strong people—those who see failure as just one way to succeed, who use every situation to their advantage, who think with strength, try without fear, and achieve with skill.
⑧ Once someone has a clear goal, they should imagine a straight path toward reaching it and stay focused without looking to the side. Doubts and fears must be pushed away because they break the path and make efforts weak and useless. Thoughts of doubt and fear never achieve anything. They always lead to failure. When doubt and fear enter the mind, strong thoughts, energy, and the power to act all disappear.
⑨ The will to act comes from knowing that we can succeed. Doubt and fear are the biggest enemies of this knowledge. If someone lets them grow and doesn’t fight them, they will block themselves at every step.
⑩ The person who has overcome doubt and fear has also overcome failure. Their thoughts are full of strength, and they face every problem with courage and solve it with wisdom. Their goals are planted at the right time, and they grow, bloom, and bear fruit that does not fall too early.
⑪ When someone connects their thoughts to a clear goal without fear, those thoughts become strong and creative. If they understand this, they are ready to become better and stronger than just a person full of changing thoughts and feelings. If they live this way, they will be able to use their mind with clear understanding and smart control.
Thought and Purpose (Original text)
(Based on As a Man Thinketh by James Allen)
① Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. With the majority the bark of thought is allowed to “drift” upon the ocean of life. Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction.
accomplishment（達成、成果） bark（外皮、表層） drift（漂流する） aimlessness（目的のなさ） vice（悪徳） steer（操縦する） catastrophe（大災害、大惨事） destruction（破壊） with（〜において、〜の間で） steer clear of（〜を避ける）
② They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planned sins (though by a different route), to failure, unhappiness, and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power evolving universe.
prey（えじき） fall prey to（〜の餌食になる） petty（ささいな） self-pity（自己憐憫） indication（兆候、しるし） weakness（弱さ） deliberately（意図的に） persist（存続する、持続する） universe（宇宙、万物） evolve（進化する、発展する）
③ A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being; but whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thought-forces upon the object, which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings, and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting-point for future power and triumph.
conceive（思い描く、心に抱く） legitimate（正当な） accomplish（成し遂げる） centralizing（中心に集める） worldly（世俗的な） steadily（着実に） supreme（最高の） devote（捧げる、専念する） attainment（達成） ephemeral（つかの間の） fancies（空想） longing（憧れ、切望） royal road（王道） triumph（勝利）
④Those who are not prepared for the apprehension of a great purpose should fix the thoughts upon the faultless performance of their duty, no matter how insignificant their task may appear. Only in this way can the thoughts be gathered and focussed, and resolution and energy be developed, which being done, there is nothing which may not be accomplished.
apprehension（理解、把握） faultless（完璧な） performance（遂行、実行） insignificant（取るに足らない） resolution（決意、覚悟） accomplish（成し遂げる）
⑤ The weakest soul, knowing its own weakness, and believing this truth that strength can only be developed by effort and practice, will, thus believing, at once begin to exert itself, and, adding effort to effort, patience to patience, and strength to strength, will never cease to develop, and will at last grow divinely strong.
exert（働かせる、力を出す） cease（やめる、中断する） divinely（神のように、非常に）
⑥ As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.
physically（肉体的に） patient（忍耐強い） exercise（鍛える、訓練する）
⑦ To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.
put away（捨てる） aimlessness（目的のなさ） with purpose（目的をもって） enter the ranks of〜（〜の仲間入りをする） pathway（道、手段） attainment（達成） serve（役立つ、仕える） attempt（試みる） fearlessly（恐れずに） accomplish（成し遂げる） masterfully（見事に、巧みに）
⑧ Having conceived of his purpose, a man should mentally mark out a straight pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right nor the left. Doubts and fears should be rigorously excluded; they are disintegrating elements, which break up the straight line of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual, useless. Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplished anything, and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in.
conceive（思い描く） mentally（心の中で） mark out（描き出す） pathway（道筋） rigorously（厳しく） exclude（排除する） disintegrate（崩壊させる） render（〜にする） crooked（曲がった） ineffectual（効果のない） creep in（忍び込む）
⑨ The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.
will（意志） spring from（〜から生まれる） encourage（助長する） slay（打ち倒す、殺す） thwart（妨げる） at every step（あらゆる場面で）
⑩ He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His every thought is allied with power, and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome. His purposes are seasonably planted, and they bloom and bring forth fruit, which does not fall prematurely to the ground.
conquer（克服する、打ち勝つ） ally with（〜と結びつける） seasonably（適切な時に） bloom（花開く） bring forth（実らせる） prematurely（早すぎる時期に）
⑪ Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force: he who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations; he who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental powers.
allied（結びついた） fearlessly（恐れずに） mere（単なる） bundle（束） wavering（揺れ動く） fluctuating（変動する） sensation（感覚） conscious（意識的な） wielder（使い手） mental power（精神力）
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。
目標を持つことの始まり
人が真に賢く何かを成し遂げようとするならば、考えと目標を結びつけなければなりません。
たいていの人は思考の舵を取らずに人生の海を漂っています。
しかし、目標のない漂流は悪しき習慣であり、それを断ち切る者だけが破滅を避ける道を歩めるのです。
小さな実践の中に力を育む
大きな目標を持てないうちは、どんなに取るに足らないと思える務めであっても、誠実に果たすことに心を集中すべきです。
その積み重ねによって、集中力や意志の力は育ち、やがてどんな困難も超えていける強さが養われていきます。
弱い心であっても、努力と実践を信じるならば、そこから神聖な強さが芽生えていくのです。
正しい思考が人を強くする
体が鍛えられるように、思考もまた鍛えることができます。
疑いや恐れを手放し、目標に向かって考えるとき、人は失敗を糧とし、力強く、賢く、前進できるようになります。
やがてその人の考えは創造力となり、心は力と結びつき、行動へと導かれます。
心の力を使いこなす者へ
「自分にはできる」と信じることは、意思や行動を生む源です。
疑いと恐れはその妨げとなり、退けなければ自らを縛ることになります。
しかしそれらを乗り越えた者は、失敗に屈せず、心と力を合わせて進む者となります。
もはや感情に流されず、心を賢く用いる者へと変わるのです。目標は時を得て実を結ぶことでしょう。
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。
5-1に続きます。
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