Letter 12 Flashcards
Quocumque me verti, argumenta senectutis meae video. Veneram in suburbanum meum et querebar de inpensis aedificii dilabentis. Ait vilicus mihi non esse neglegentiae suae vitium, omnia se facere, sed villam veterem esse. Haec villa inter manus meas crevit; quid mihi futurum est, si tam putria sunt aetatis meae saxa? Iratus illi proximam occasionem stomachandi arripio.
Wherever I turn, I see proof of my old age. I came to my country estate and I began to complain about the cost of the decaying building. The bailiff said to me the neglect was not his fault, he did everything himself, but that the building was old. This villa was put in my hands; what is to become of me, if the stones, which are so rotten, are the same age as me? Having gotten angry, I seized the next occasion for fuming at him (the bailiff).
aetatis meae- gen of description.
occasio takes gen gerundive
“Apparet,” inquam, “has platanos neglegi; nullas habent frondes. Quam nodosi sunt et retorridi rami, quam tristes et squalidi trunci! Hoc non accideret, si quis has circumfoderet, si inrigaret.” Iurat per genium meum se omnia facere, in nulla re cessare curam suam, sed illas vetulas esse. Quod intra nos sit, ego illas posueram, ego illarum primum videram folium.
‘It is apparent,’ I said, ‘that these plain trees have been neglected, they have no leaves. How are they full of knots and withered branches, how tired and neglected the trunks are! This would not be happening if anyone were digging around and watering them.’ He fumed by (means of) my genius to do all this himself, that he would not cease his care in anything, but the trees were old. This is between us but I planted them and I saw their first leaves.
hoc non…inrigaret- present closed conditional (imp subj)
Conversus ad ianuam “Quis est iste?” inquam, “iste decrepitus et merito ad ostium admotus? Foras enim spectat. Unde istunc nactus es? Quid te delectavit alienum mortuum tollere?” At ille “Non cognoscis me?” inquit. “Ego sum Felicio, cui solebas sigillaria adferre. Ego sum Philositi vilici filius, deliciolum tuum.” “Perfecte,” inquam, “iste delirat. Pupulus etiam delicium meum factus est? Prorsus potest fieri; dentes illi cum maxime cadunt.”
Turning towards the door, I said ‘Who is that man? He is decrepit and rightfully applied to the door. For he is looking out the door. Where did you find him? What is the pleasure for you carrying out a stranger’s dead?’ But he said, ‘Do you not know me? I am Felicio, to whom you were accustomed to bring small figures. I am the son of the bailiff Philostitus, your playfellow.’ And I said, ‘He is perfectly crazy. Now he has become a little boy and my playfellow? He is able to become truly; his teeth are just now falling out.’
cum maxime- just now
Debeo hoc suburbano meo, quod mihi senectus mea, quocumque adverteram, apparuit. Conplectamur illam et amemus; plena est voluptatis, si illa scias uti. Gratissima sunt poma, cum fugiunt; pueritiae maximus in exitu decor est; deditos vino potio extrema delectat, illa quae mergit, quae ebrietati summam manum inponit. Quod in se iucundissimum omnis voluptas habet, in finem sui differt. Iucundissima est aetas devexa iam, non tamen praeceps.
I owe this to my country estate, it makes my old age clear to me, wherever I turn. Let us embrace and love it; it is full of pleasure if you know how to use it. Fruit is the most pleasing, when they wilt. Boyhood is the most attractive in its exit. For the one devoted to wine, the last drink is alluring, the one which plunges/overwhelms/drowns him and places his hand to intoxication. Each pleasure holds off the greatest delight, which it contains, till its end. Life is most delightful now by inclining, not however, steep.
Et illam quoque in extrema tegula stantem iudico habere suas voluptates. Aut hoc ipsum succedit in locum voluptatium, nullis egere. Quam dulce est cupiditates fatigasse ac reliquisse! “Molestum est,” inquis, “mortem ante oculos habere.” Primum ista tam seni ante oculos debet esse quam iuveni. Non enim citamur ex censu. Deinde nemo tam senex est, ut inprobe unum diem speret. Unus autem dies gradus vitae est.
Even that time, I think, which stands on the top of a roof, holds its own pleasures. To want nothing has taken the place of pleasure itself. How sweet is it to weary and leave behind desires! ‘It is annoying,’ you say, ‘to have death before your eyes.’ First, death itself ought to be as much before the eyes of the old as the young. For we are not called by the census. Second, no one is so old that he wrongly hopes for one more day. However, one day is a step of life.
Tota aetas partibus constat et orbes habet circumductos maiores minoribus. Est aliquis, qui omnis conplectatur et cingat; hic pertinet a natali ad diem extremum. Est alter, qui annos adulescentiae cludit. Est qui totam pueritiam ambitu suo adstringit. Est deinde per se annus in se omnia continens tempora, quorum multiplicatione vita conponitur. Mensis artiore praecingitur circulo. Angustissimum habet dies gyrum, sed et hic ab initio ad exitum venit, ab ortu ad occasum.
All life consists of parts and holds larger circles encompassing smaller ones. There is one which embraces and circles the rest; this reaches from our birth to our last day. There is another, which surrounds our adultescent years. There is one which compresses our whole childhood in its circle. Then there is the year enclosing, in itself, all time, of which life is constructed by multiplying. A month is enclosed by a tighter circle. A day has the narrowest circle, but even a day goes all the way from the start to the end, from sunrise to sunset.
Ideo Heraclitus, cui cognomen fecit orationis obscuritas, “Unus,” inquit, “dies par omni est.” Hoc alius aliter excepit. Dixit enim parem esse horis, nec mentitur; nam si dies est tempus viginti et quattuor horarum, necesse est omnes inter se dies pares esse, quia nox habet, quod dies perdidit. Alius ait parem esse unum diem omnibus similitudine; nihil enim habet longissimi temporis spatium, quod non et in uno die invenias, lucem et noctem, et in aeternum dies vices plures facit istas, non alias contractior, alias productior. itaque sic ordinandus est dies omnis, tamquam cogat agmen et consummet atque expleat vitam.
For that reason Heraclitus, who made his name from obscure speeches, said, ‘One say is equal to all days.’ Different people take this in different ways. For one person says that equal is to an hour, and this is true. For if a day is a time of 24 hours, it is necessary that all days are equal within one another, because night has what day loses. Another says that one day is equal to all others in resemblance. Even the longest space of time has nothing which you do not meet in one day - light and dark - even for eternity days make these changes, not different shorter or different longer. And so, in this way, every day ought to be arranged as if it were the last, as if it summed up and filled life.
cogat agmen- lit. bringing up the rear
Pacuvius, qui Syriam usu suam fecit, cum vino et illis funebribus epulis sibi parentaverat, sic in cubiculum ferebatur a cena, ut inter plausus exoletorum hoc ad symphoniam caneretur: βεβίωται, βεβίωται. Nullo non se die extulit. Hoc, quod ille ex mala conscientia faciebat, nos ex bona faciamus et in somnum ituri laeti hilaresque dicamus: ‘Vixi et quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi’.
Crastinum si adiecerit deus, laeti recipiamus. Ille beatissimus est et securus sui possessor, qui crastinum sine sollicitudine expectat. Quisquis dixit “vixi,” cotidie ad lucrum surgit.
Pacuvius, who made Syria his own by employment, would celebrated the day of his own death with wine and the usual funeral feast, he would be carried out to his bed after dinner in such a way that amidst applause of the eunuchs to the sound of the chorus and was sang, ‘He has lived, he has lived!’ Each and every day he was carried out. Let us do this, what he did for bad reasons, from good, and happy and cheerfully going towards our rest, let us say ‘I have lived, and finished the race which fortune gave me.’
If the gods should add a tomorrow, let us welcome it joyfully. He is the happiest, the untroubled possessor of himself, who looks for tomorrow without anxiety. Anyone who said ‘I have lived’, rises to advantage daily.
Sed iam debeo epistulam includere. “Sic,” inquis, “sine ullo ad me peculio veniet?” Noli timere; aliquid secum fert. Quare aliquid dixi? Multum. Quid enim hac voce praeclarius, quam illi trado ad te perferendam? “Malum est in necessitate vivere; sed in necessitate vivere necessitas nulla est.” Quidni nulla sit? Patent undique ad libertatem viae multae breves, faciles. Agamus deo gratias, quod nemo in vita teneri potest. Calcare ipsas necessitates licet. “Epicurus,” inquis, “dixit. Quid tibi cum alieno?” Quod verum est, meum est. Perseverabo Epicurum tibi ingerere, ut isti, qui in verba iurant, nec quid dicatur aestimant, sed a quo, sciant, quae optima sunt, esse communia. Vale.
But now I ought to finish this letter. ‘in this way,’ you ask, ‘it arrives without any money for me?’ Don’t fear, it bears something with it. Why did I say something? For it is many. For what is more excellent than this saying, which I hand over to this letter to carry to you? ‘It is bad to live under constraint; but nothing constrains us to live in dire straights.’ Why should there be? The paths to freedom lie open all the way, many short and easy. Let us give thanks to the gods, that no one is able to hold tight to life. We can trample on those very constraints. ‘Epicurus said that,’ you say. ‘What is another person’s thoughts to you?’ What is true, is mine. I will persist to inflict Epicurus on you, so that those, who swear on words, don’t judge what has been said but by whom. Let them know what is best is common property.
Farewell.
