Shankaracharya's commentary, trans. Alladi Mahadeva Sastry (1897)
[1]That which is night for all beings, therein the self-controlled sage is awake; that in which all beings are awake is night for the perceiving sage.
BG 2.69
या निशा सर्वभूतानां तस्यां जागर्ति संयमी । यस्यां जाग्रति भूतानि सा निशा पश्यतो मुनेः ॥
yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṃ tasyāṃ jāgarti saṃyamī | yasyāṃ jāgrati bhūtāni sā niśā paśyato muneḥ ||
"The sage is awake to what all others cannot see. What the world calls 'real' is darkness to the sage."
All public-domain translations
5 translations · all pre-1928 or released to public domain · sources
Swami Swarupananda, Srimad Bhagavad Gita (1909)
[4]That which is night to all beings, in that the self-controlled man is awake; that in which all beings are awake is the night of the seeing sage.
William Quan Judge, The Bhagavad Gita (1890)
[6]What is night for all beings is as day to the man of restraint; what appears as day to all beings is night to the seeing sage.
Sir Edwin Arnold, The Song Celestial (1885)
[7]That which is night to all the world The awakened soul keeps watch in; That which all creatures stir in Is night to the seeing sage.
K.T. Telang, Sacred Books of the East Vol. 8 (1882)
[9]What is night for all creatures, in that the self-restrained man is awake; what all creatures are awake in, that is night for the contemplative sage.