Book 5 Flashcards
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Egisti ergo mecum, ut mihi persuaderetur Romam pergere et potius ibi docere quod docebam Carthagini.
You dealt with me, therefore, in order that it might be persuaded to me to go to Rome and rather teach there what I was teaching in Carthage.
Et hoc unde mihi persuasum est, non praeteribo confiteri tibi, quoniam et in his altissimi tui recessus et praesentissima in nos misericordia tua cogitanda et praedicanda est.
And whence this was persuaded to me, I will not omit to confess to You, since also in these, Your highest recesses and Your most immediate mercy toward us are requiring to be thought about and preached.
Non ideo Romam pergere volui, quod maiores quaestus maiorque mihi dignitas ab amicis, qui hoc suadebant, promittebatur (quamquam et ista ducebant animum tunc meum) sed illa erat causa maxima et paene sola, quod audiebam quietius ibi studere adulescentes et ordinatiore disciplinae cohercitione sedari, ne in eius scholam, quo magistro non utuntur, passim et proterve irruant, nec eos admitti omnino, nisi ille permiserit.
I did not want to go to Rome, on account that greater profits and greater dignity were being promised to me by friends, who were advising this, (although these things also were drawing my mind), but the greatest and almost the only cause, was that I was hearing young people to study more quietly there and to be kept in a more orderly restraint of discipline, so that they do not rush disorderly and boldly into the school of him, by whom they do not use as a teacher, nor are they to be admitted at all, unless he has allowed it
Contra apud Carthaginem foeda est et intemperans licentia scholasticorum: irrumpunt impudenter et prope furiosa fronte perturbant ordinem, quem quisque discipulis ad proficiendum instituerit.
In contrast, at Carthage, there is a foul and intemperate license among the students; they impudently rush in and, with a nearly furious face disturb the order which each one might have established for his student’s to make progress.
Multa iniuriosa faciunt mira hebetudine et punienda legibus, nisi consuetudo patrona sit, hoc miseriores eos ostendens, quo iam quasi liceat faciunt, quod per tuam aeternam legem numquam licebit, et impune se facere arbitrantur, cum ipsa faciendi caecitate puniantur et incomparabiliter patiantur peiora, quam faciunt.
They commit many injurious things with amazing dullness and requiring to be punished by laws, unless custom were there patroness, this showing them to be more pitiable, as if it were allowed, which through Your eternal law will never shall be allowed, and they think they act with impunity, when they are punished by the very blindness of doing and they suffer incomparably worse things than those they do.
Ergo quos mores cum studerem meos esse nolui, eos cum docerem cogebar perpeti alienos, et ideo placebat ire, ubi talia non fieri omnes qui noverant indicabant.
Therefore, the behaviours which I did not want to be mine when I was studying, I was being compelled to endure as foreign when I was teaching, and for this reason it pleased me to go where all those who knew were indicating that such things should not be done.
Verum autem tu, spes mea et portio mea in terra viventium, ad mutandum terrarum locum pro salute animae meae
et Carthagini stimulos, quibus inde avellerer, admovebas et Romae illecebras,
quibus attraherer, proponebas mihi per homines, qui diligunt vitam mortuam, hinc insana facientes, inde vana pollicentes et ad corrigendos gressus meos utebaris occulte et illorum et mea perversitate.
But truly, You, my hope and my portion in the land of the living, were moving me to change my place on the lands, for the salvation of my soul,
and you were bringing the spurs to Carthage, by which I might be torn away from there, and you were proposing to me the temptations in Rome,
by which I was drawn in, through men who love a dead life, making me insane from this side and promising me vain things to correct my steps and You secretly used both their perversity and my own.
Nam et qui perturbabant meum otium, caeci erant foeda rabie, et qui invitabant ad aliud, sapiebant terram, ego autem, qui detestabar hic miseriam veram, appetebam illic falsam felicitatem.
For those who were disturbing my peace were blind with foul rage, and those who were inviting me to something else were savouring the earth; but I, who was detesting here true misery, was longing there for false happiness.
Sed quare hinc abirem et illuc irem, tu sciebas, Deus, nec indicabas mihi nec matri, quae me profectum atrociter planxit et usque ad mare secuta est.
But you, God, knowing why I was leaving here and going there, and you neither indicated this to me nor to mother, who bitterly
mourned me having set out and followed me all the way to the sea
Sed fefelli eam violenter tenentem me, ut aut revocaret aut pergeret mecum, et finxi
me nolle deserere amicum, donec vento facto navigaret.
But I deceived her, holding me violently, so that she would either call back or might go with me, and I pretended that I did not wish to abandon a friend until he could sail with the wind having been made (having been made favourable).
Et mentitus sum matri, et illi matri, et evasi, quia et hoc dimisisti mihi misericorditer
servans me ab aquis maris plenum execrandis sordibus usque ad aquam gratiae tuae, qua me abluto siccarentur flumina maternorum oculorum, quibus pro me quotidie tibi rigabat terram sub vultu suo.
And I lied to my mother, and to that mother, and I escaped, because you mercifully allowed
this to me,
keeping me full of execrable filth from the waters of the sea all the way to the water of your grace, by which with me having been washed, the streams of maternal eyes might be dried up, by which daily she was watering the earth under her face to you for me.
Et tamen recusanti sine me redire vix persuasi, ut in loco, qui proximus nostrae navi erat, memoria beati Cypriani, maneret ea nocte.
And scarcely I persuaded to her, refusing to return without me, so that in the place, which was near to our ship, the memorial chapel of blessed Cyprian,
she might remain that night.
Sed ea nocte ego clanculo profectus sum, illa autem mansit orando et flendo
But that night I secretly set out, however, she remained praying and weeping.
Et quid a te petebat, Deus meus, tantis lacrimis, nisi ut navigare me non sineres?
And what was she asking from you, my God, with tears having been great, except that you would not allow me to sail?
Sed tu alte consulens et exaudiens cardinem desiderii eius non curasti quod tunc petebat, ut me faceres quod semper petebat.
But you, deeply considering and hearing the hinge of her desire, did not grant about what she was asking at that time, so that you should make me what she was always asking.
