PLINY, A Day's Hunting Flashcards
C. PLINIUS CORNELIO TACITUS SUO S.
ridebis, et licet rideas.
Caius Pliny sends greetings to his dear Cornelius Tacitus.
You will laugh, and you may well laugh.
ego, ille quem nosti, apros tres et quidem pulcherrimos cepi. ‘ipse?’ inquis. ipse; non tamen ut omnino ab inertia mea et quiete discederem.
I, the man whom you know all about, have caught three boars - and very fine ones too! ‘You?’ you say. Yes, me: not, however, so that I totally abandoned my usual inactivity and peacefulness.
ad retia sedebam; erat in proximo non venabulum aut lancea, sed stilus et pugillares; meditabar aliquid enotabamque, ut si manus vacuas, plenas tamen ceras reportarem.
I sat close to the nets; beside me was, not a hunting-spear or a javelin, but my pen and writing-tablets. I was thinking something over and jotting it down, so that, even if I brought back empty hands, I should at least bring back full tablets.
non est quod contemnas hoc studendi genus; mirum est ut animus agitatione motuque corporis excitetur; iam undique silvae et solitudo ipsumque illud silentium quod venationi datur, magna cogitationis incitamenta sunt.
This kind of studying is not something that you should frown on; it is amazing how the mind is stimulated by the exercise and motion of the body; the woods already all around, and the solitude, and that very silence which is devoted to hunting, are all great stimulants to thought.
proinde cum venabere, licebit auctore me ut panarium et lagunculam sic etiam pugillares feras: experieris non Dianam magis montibus queam Minervam inerrare. vale.
Accordingly, when you next go hunting, on my advice you should also take your writing-tablets, just like your picnic-basket and your drinking-flask: you will find that Diana does not roam on the hills any more than Minerva. Goodbye.
