In plain words
For one who identifies with the body cannot completely abandon all actions; but one who relinquishes the fruits of action is called a tyāgin.
Word for word
For it is not possible for one who bears a body to give up actions entirely; but he who gives up the fruit of action is called a tyāgin.
न हि देहभृता शक्यं त्यक्तुं कर्माण्यशेषतःयस्तु कर्मफलत्यागी स त्यागीत्यभिधीयते
Other commentaries
The commentators
▸Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
यः पुनः अधिकृतः सन् देहात्माभिमानित्वेन देहभृत् अज्ञः अबाधितात्मकर्तृत्वविज्ञानतया ‘अहं कर्ता’ इति निश्चितबुद्धिः तस्य अशेषकर्मपरित्यागस्य अशक्यत्वात् कर्मफलत्यागेन चोदितकर्मानुष्ठाने एव अधिकारः, न तत्त्यागे इति एतम् अर्थं दर्शयितुम् आह —
न हि यस्मात् देहभृता, देहं बिभर्तीति देहभृत् , देहात्माभिमानवान् देहभृत् उच्यते, न विवेकी ; स हि ‘वेदाविनाशिनम्’(भ. गी. २ । २१) इत्यादिना कर्तृत्वाधिकारात् निवर्तितः । अतः तेन देहभृता अज्ञेन न शक्यं त्यक्तुं संन्यसितुं कर्माणि अशेषतः निःशेषेण । तस्मात् यस्तु अज्ञः अधिकृतः नित्यानि कर्माणि कुर्वन् कर्मफलत्यागी कर्मफलाभिसन्धिमात्रसंन्यासी सः त्यागी इति अभिधीयते कर्मी अपि सन् इति स्तुत्यभिप्रायेण । तस्मात् परमार्थदर्शिनैव अदेहभृता देहात्मभावरहितेन अशेषकर्मसंन्यासः शक्यते कर्तुम् ॥ ११ ॥
In plain words
But now take the other kind of person. He is qualified for action; he takes the body to be himself and so lives as a body-bearer; he lacks knowledge; and since nothing has yet overturned his cognition of the self as agent, the certainty "I am the doer" stands fixed in him. For a man like this, giving up action without remainder is simply not possible. What is open to him is performing the action laid on him while letting go of its fruit — that, and not dropping the action itself. To show this, the Lord says —
'Not' — because 'by the embodied one' means literally: one who bears the body, and that is what 'body-bearer' means — someone who mistakes the body for the Self. That is not the discerning one; the discerning one, through teachings like 'one who knows the imperishable' (Bhagavad Gītā 2.21), has already been lifted right out of the very domain of agency. So it is impossible for the body-bearer, the unenlightened one, to relinquish action completely, without remainder. That is why the term 'relinquisher' is really given to someone else: the unenlightened but qualified person who keeps performing obligatory rites while giving up the fruit of action — renouncing only the mental aim at a result, nothing more. He is called 'the relinquisher' even though he is still, in truth, an agent — and that title is given only to praise him. So it is only the seer of the ultimate truth, one who is no longer a body-bearer at all, free of the very notion that the body is the Self, who can actually accomplish the complete renunciation of all action.
Close to the Sanskrit
But he who, being one entitled (to action), through the state of conceiving the body as the self a bearer of the body, ignorant, by reason of an uncontradicted cognition of the self's agency one whose conviction is settled as 'I am the doer' — for him, because complete abandonment of action is impossible, entitlement lies only in the performance of enjoined action along with relinquishment of the fruit of action, not in the abandonment of that (action): in order to show this meaning, He says —
'Not indeed' — because 'by the embodied one' — 'bears the body', thus 'body-bearer' — one who holds the conceit that the body is the Self is called 'body-bearer', not the discriminating one; for he indeed, by 'one who knows the imperishable' (Bhagavad Gītā 2|21) and similar statements, has been withdrawn from the domain of agency. Therefore, by him, the body-bearer, the ignorant one, it is not possible to relinquish, to renounce, actions completely, entirely. Therefore, whoever, being ignorant, qualified, performing obligatory actions, is a relinquisher of the fruit of action, a renouncer merely of the intention for the fruit of action — he is called 'the relinquisher', even while being an agent, with the intention of praise. Therefore, only by the seer of the ultimate truth, by the one who is not a body-bearer, by one devoid of the notion that the body is the Self, is the complete renunciation of all action possible to perform.