Míguez
11. Posee la infinitud porque no es múltiple y porque no tiene nada que lo limite. Por ser uno no puede ser medido ni alcanza la condición de número. No es limitado, ni por otra cosa ni por sí mismo, ya que si así fuese, sería al menos dos. No tiene, pues, figura, ni partes, ni forma. No tratéis de verle con ojos mortales, como comúnmente se dice, ni creáis que se le pueda ver así, según piensan los que suponen que todas las cosas son sensibles, (negando) con ello la más alta realidad. Porque las cosas que estiman más altas, no son realmente las que ocupan ese lugar. El Primero es principio del ser y superior, incluso, a la esencia; de modo que es preciso mantener la opinión contraria, porque, en otro caso, quedaríais privados de Dios, al igual que aquellos que, en las fiestas sagradas, sólo se satisfacen con su glotonería , alimentándose de manjares que no es lícito tomar cuando se da en la morada de los dioses, aunque crean que se trata algo más cierto que la contemplación misma de Dios, a quien verdaderamente conviene festejar, cosa que en realidad hacen, ya que no participan en las ceremonias sagradas. Pues, como no ven a Dios en estas ceremonias, creen que no existe y sólo admiten como cosa segura la que contemplan con los ojos de su cuerpo; cual esos seres que, adormecidos durante su vida, tomasen sus sueños por realidades verdaderas, hasta el punto de que, si alguien les despertase, no creerían lo que ven con los ojos abiertos, sumiéndose de nuevo en el sueño.
Bouillet
XI. Le premier principe est infini parce qu’il est un et que rien en lui ne saurait être limité par quoi que ce soit. Étant un, il n’est pas soumis à la mesure ni au nombre. Il n’est donc borné ni par autrui ni par lui-même, puisque de cette manière il serait double. Il n’a par conséquent point de figure, puisqu’il n’a ni parties ni forme. Ne cherche donc pas à saisir par des yeux mortels ce principe tel que le conçoit la raison. Ne t’imagine pas qu’on puisse le voir, de la manière dont se le figurerait un homme qui croirait que tout est perçu par les sens et anéantirait ainsi le principe qui est la suprême réalité (τὸ μάλιστα πάντων). Les choses auxquelles le vulgaire attribue la réalité ne la possèdent pas (17) : car ce qui est étendu a moins de réalité [que ce qui n’est pas étendu] ; or, le Premier est le principe de l’existence et est supérieur même à l’essence. Il te faut donc admettre le contraire de ee qu’admet le vulgaire; sinon, tu seras privé de Dieu. Tu ressembleras à ces hommes qui, dans les fêtes sacrées, se gorgent d’aliments dont on doit s’abstenir quand on s’approche des dieux, et qui, regardant cette jouissance comme plus certaine que la contemplation de la divinité dont on célèbre la fête, s’en vont sans avoir participé aux mystères. En effet, comme la divinité ne se fait pas voir à eux dans ces mystères, ces hommes grossiers doutent de son existence, parce qu’ils ne regardent comme réel que ce qu’on voit avec les yeux du corps. C’est ainsi que des gens qui passeraient toute leur vie dans le sommeil regarderaient comme certaines et réelles les choses qu’ils verraient dans leurs rêves; si on les éveillait et qu’on les forçât d’ouvrir les yeux, ils n’ajouteraient aucune foi à leur témoignage et se plongeraient de nouveau dans leur sommeil.
Guthrie
PROGRESS TOWARDS HIM IS WAKENING TO TRUE REALITY.
11. The firsfirst Principle is infinite because He is one, and nothing in Him could be limited by anything whatever. Being one, He is not subject to measure or number. He is limited neither by others nor by Himself, since He would thus be double. Since He has neither parts nor form, He has no figure. Not by mortal eyes therefore must you seek to grasp this principle such as reason conceives of Him. Do not imagine that He could be seen in the way that would be imagined by a man who believes that everything is perceived by the senses, and thus annihilate the principle which is the supreme reality. The things to which the common people attribute reality do not possess it; for that which has extension has less reality (than that which has no extension); now the First is the principle of existence, and is even superior to “being.” You must therefore admit the contrary of that which is asserted by those commonplace persons; otherwise, you will be deprived of the divinity. You would resemble such men as in the sacred festivals gorge themselves with the foods from which one should abstain on approaching the divinities, and who, regarding this enjoyment as more certain than the contemplation of the divinity whose festival is being celebrated, depart without having participated in the mysteries. Indeed as the divinity does not reveal Himself in these mysteries, these gross men doubt His existence, because they consider real only what is visible by the physical eyes. Thus people who would spend their whole life in slumber would consider as certain and real the things they would see in their dreams; if they were to be waked and forced to open their eyes, they would place no credence in the testimony of their eyes, and would plunge themselves again into their somnolence.
MacKenna
11. It is infinite also by right of being a pure unity with nothing towards which to direct any partial content. Absolutely One, it has never known measure and stands outside of number, and so is under no limit either in regard to any extern or within itself; for any such determination would bring something of the dual into it. And having no constituent parts it accepts no pattern, forms no shape.
Reason recognising it as such a nature, you may not hope to see it with mortal eyes, nor in any way that would be imagined by those who make sense the test of reality and so annul the supremely real. For what passes for the most truly existent is most truly non-existent – the thing of extension least real of all – while this unseen First is the source and principle of Being and sovereign over Reality.
You must turn appearances about or you will be left void of God. You will be like those at the festivals who in their gluttony cram themselves with things which none going to the gods may touch; they hold these goods to be more real than the vision of the God who is to be honoured and they go away having had no share in the sanctities of the shrine.
In these celebrations of which we speak, the unseen god leaves those in doubt of his existence who think nothing patent but what may be known to the flesh: it happens as if a man slept a life through and took the dream world in perfect trust; wake him, and he would refuse belief to the report of his open eyes and settle down to sleep again.