Are you sure?

<em>I take this as a very clever saying.</em>
<em>All those alive are not living</em>
<em>- How many people do you know that just exist, contribute nothing and don't even like life. They might as well be stones.</em>

<em>However think of some of the dead - Julies Caesar, Plato, Cicero, Marie Curie, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Confucius. All these people are dead but don't you think that they are immortal?</em>

The above is a reply from an Aussie. I think my translation made sense that I inteded to him.

<a href="http://www.italki.com/notebook/entry/235974.htm">http://www.italki.com/notebook/entry/235974.htm</a>;

In English, those direct translations, the sentences make no sense.

"Immortal" usually means not subject to death, thus alive. However, it also means one who has an everlasting fame.

Note:

Recycling words and sentence patterns in Chinese sometimes makes your writing more beautiful, but as far as I know, this doesn't apply to English. Hence, I tried to avoid it.

I like your translation. I'm not an expert -- I am not sure --, but I think your use of "alive" and "living" is not correct. What do you think is the difference?

This is my version.

All those alive, are not living.

Some dead, are immortal.

"Alive" is always literally not dead. But there is an English phrase: living dead.

Maybe, we can translate the first line yet more liberally into

Some alive, are living dead.

有的人活着，他（仿佛）已经死了。

有的人死了，他（仿佛）还活着。

If you are really concerned of accurate translation of every single character,

Some are alive, but (like) already dead.

Some are dead, yet (like) still alive.