「 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。
第六章「VISIONS AND IDEALS-1」です。原文と日本語解説もつけています。
Visions and Ideal-1 (Modernized Version)
① Dreamers save the world. Just as the visible world is run by invisible forces, people are nourished by the beautiful visions of lonely dreamers, even though they face many problems, mistakes, and tough jobs. They cannot forget these dreamers. They do not let their ideals fade or die. They live through dreamers. They see dreamers as real, even if they don’t fully understand them yet.
②Composers, sculptors, painters, poets, prophets, and wise people — these are the makers of the future world, the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful because they have lived. Without them, people would work only to survive, losing their soul and fading away. Anyone who holds a beautiful vision or a high ideal in their heart will make it real one day.
Columbus held a vision of a new world, and he discovered it.
Copernicus developed the vision of many planets and a wider universe, and he revealed it.
Buddha saw the vision of a spiritual world of pure beauty and perfect peace, and he reached it.
Keep your visions. Keep your ideals.Keep the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, and the beauty that covers your purest thoughts. From them will grow all delightful conditions and every heavenly environment, and if you just remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
③ To desire is to obtain, and to aspire is to achieve. Could it be that a person’s lowest desires are fully satisfied while their purest dreams are neglected? That is not the Law. That situation can never happen. Therefore, “ask and receive.”
④ Embrace noble dreams, and you will become what you dream. Your vision is the promise of what you will be someday, and your ideal is the prediction of what you will finally unveil. The greatest achievement was only a dream for a while. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the soul’s highest vision, an angel begins to awaken. Dreams are the seeds of reality.
⑤ Your situation may be unpleasant, but it will not stay that way for long if you see an ideal and work hard to reach it. You cannot grow inside while remaining unchanged outside.
Here is a young man struggling with poverty and hard work. He spends long hours in an unhealthy workshop. He has little education and lacks refinement. But he dreams of better things. He thinks about knowledge, grace, and beauty. He imagines an ideal life and builds it in his mind. The vision of greater freedom and a wider future fills his heart. His feeling of unrest urges him to action, and he uses all his free time and limited resources to develop his hidden talents. Very soon, his mind changes so much that the workshop can no longer hold him. It no longer matches his way of thinking, so it disappears from his life like an old garment cast aside.
With new opportunities that match his growing abilities, he leaves that life forever. Years later, we see this young man as a mature adult. He has mastered certain mental powers, using them with strong influence and outstanding strength. He holds great responsibilities. When he speaks, people’s lives change. People listen closely to his words and reshape their characters. Like the sun, he becomes a bright and steady center, and many destinies move around him.
⑥ He has realized the Vision of his youth. He has become one with his Ideal.
Visions and Idealt-1 (Original text)
(Based on As a Man Thinketh by James Allen)
① The dreamers are the saviours of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as the realities which it shall one day see and know.
saviour（=savor 救済者） sustain（支える、維持する） trial（試練） sordid（卑しい、下劣な） vocation（職業、天職） nourish（養う、育む） solitary（孤独な） ideal（理想） fade（消える、薄れる）
②Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are the makers of the after-world, the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful because they have lived; without them, labouring humanity would perish. He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it.
Columbus cherished a vision of another world, and he discovered it;
Copernicus fostered the vision of a multiplicity of worlds and a wider universe, and he revealed it;
Buddha beheld the vision of a spiritual world of stainless beauty and perfect peace, and he entered into it.
Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all, heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
composer（作曲家） sculptor（彫刻家） prophet（預言者） sage（賢人） perish（滅びる） cherish（大切にする） lofty（高尚な） ideal（理想） foster（育む） multiplicity（多様性） reveal（明らかにする） behold（目に留める） stainless（汚れのない） drape（覆う、まとう） delightful（喜ばしい） remain（～のままでいる） true to（～に忠実である） at last（ついに） but（ただ～するだけ）
③ To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to, achieve. Shall man’s basest desires receive the fullest measure of gratification, and his purest aspirations starve for lack of sustenance? Such is not the Law: such a condition of things can never obtain: “ask and receive.”
basest（最も卑しい） gratification（満足、喜び） aspiration（向上心、願望） starve（飢える） sustenance（糧、食物） obtain（達成される）
④ Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.
lofty（高尚な） prophecy（予言） unveil（明らかにする、現す） achievement（達成） acorn（どんぐり） oak（オーク、樫の木） seedling（苗木）
⑤ Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without.
Here is a youth hard pressed by poverty and labour; confined long hours in an unhealthy workshop; unschooled, and lacking all the arts of refinement. But he dreams of better things; he thinks of intelligence, of refinement, of grace and beauty. He conceives of, mentally builds up, an ideal condition of life; the vision of a wider liberty and a larger scope takes possession of him; unrest urges him to action, and he utilizes all his spare time and means, small though they are, to the development of his latent powers and resources. Very soon so altered has his mind become that the workshop can no longer hold him. It has become so out of harmony with his mentality that it falls out of his life as a garment is cast aside, and, with the growth of opportunities, which fit the scope of his expanding powers, he passes out of it forever. Years later we see this youth as a full-grown man. We find him a master of certain forces of the mind, which he wields with worldwide influence and almost unequalled power. In his hands he holds the cords of gigantic responsibilities; he speaks, and lo, lives are changed; men and women hang upon his words and remould their characters, and, sunlike, he becomes the fixed and luminous centre round which innumerable destinies revolve.
uncongenial（不快な、性に合わない） perceive（認識する） strive（努力する） confined（閉じ込められた） refinement（上品さ、洗練） conceive（思い描く） scope（範囲、視野） unrest（不安、落ち着きのなさ） latent（潜在的な） mentality（考え方、精神構造） garment（衣服） expanding（拡大する） wields（（権力などを）振るう） unequalled（比類のない） gigantic（巨大な） remould（作り変える） luminous（輝く、明るい）
⑥ He has realized the Vision of his youth. He has become one with his Ideal.
youth (若い頃、青年時代)
和訳の要約
現代英語版は、中学レベルの英語ですが、分かりにくい部分があるかもしれません。
ここ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。
夢見る者が世界を導く
彼らの思いは、たとえ世界が困難や誤りに満ちていても、人々の心に静かに息づき、見えざる力となって働くのです。
人々は彼らを忘れません。
夢見る者が見ているものは、いずれ現実のものとして私たちの前に姿を現すでしょう。
高き理想を抱く者たちの道
芸術家や預言者、あるいは哲学者らは、世界の設計者であり、人類の未来を築くリーダーです。
その存在なくしては、人はただ生きるために労働するだけとなり、魂を失い、やがて滅んでしまうでしょう。
ビジョンを胸に抱き、それに忠実であり続ける者は、いずれその世界を築き上げます。
それがどれだけ困難であろうと、現実の扉を開く鍵なのです。
夢や理想とともに歩む人生
人は夢を抱き、それに導かれて歩み始めます。
やがて、それは心の価値と方向性を帯びて理想となり、人はその理想にふさわしい者へと成長していきます。
大樹がもとは小さな種であったように、成し遂げられたすべての偉業も、夢や理想に裏打ちされたビジョンから始まっているのです。
たとえ、不遇な状況にあっても、心に理想を描き、そのビジョンに向かって歩み続けるならば、外の世界はやがて応えるように変わっていきます。
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。
現代英語版は英語勉強に最適です。覚えるぐらい繰り返し読んで欲しいです。
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。
6-2に続きます。
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