- Source
- Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, Vol 1-3. Gummere, Richard Mott, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1917-1925.
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:latinLit:phi1017.phi015.humanitext-lat2:117.24-117.33
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Seneca points out the foolishness of casually wishing for death and criticizes the futility of wasting time on useless logical games. He emphasizes that within our limited lifespan, philosophy should be directed toward true mental healing and practice rather than mere verbal amusement.
Ita quamprimum moriar": "quamprimum "istud quid esse vis? Quem illi diem ponis? Citius fieri quam optas, potest. Inbecillae mentis ista sunt verba et hac detestatione misericordiam captantis; non vult mori qui optat. Deos vitam et salutem roga; si mori placuit, hic mortis est fructus, optare desinere.1
”So may I die as soon as possible”: what do you mean by that “as soon as possible”? What day do you set for it? It can happen sooner than you wish. These are the words of a weak mind, and of one seeking pity by this self-cursing; he who wishes for death does not want to die. Ask the gods for life and health; if you have decided to die, this is the fruit of death, to cease wishing.
Haec, mi Lucili, tractemus, his formemus animum. Hoc est sapientia, hoc est sapere, non disputatiunculis inanibus subtilitatem vanissimam agitare. Tot quaestiones fortuna tibi posuit, nondum illas solvisti; iam cavillaris? Quam stultum est, cum signum pugnae acceperis, ventilare. Remove ista lusoria arma; decretoriis opus est. Dic, qua ratione nulla animum tristitia, nulla formido perturbet, qua ratione hoc secretarum cupiditatium pondus effundam. Agatur aliquid. "
Let us treat these things, my Lucilius, and by these shape our mind. This is wisdom, this is to be wise, not to stir up a most vain subtlety with empty trifling discussions. Fortune has set so many problems before you, and you have not yet solved them; are you already playing with words? How foolish it is, when you have received the signal for battle, to brandish your weapons in the air. Remove those toy weapons; we need decisive ones. Tell me by what means no sorrow, no fear may disturb my mind, by what means I may cast off this weight of hidden desires. Let something be done.”
Sapientia bonum est, sapere non est bonum"; sic fit, ut negemur sapere,2 ut hoc totum studium derideatur tamquam operatum supervacuis. Quid, si scires etiam illud quaeri, an3 bonum sit futura sapientia? Quid enim dubi est, oro te, an nec messem futuram iam sentiant horrea nec futuram adulescentiam pueritia viribus aut ullo robore intellegat? Aegro interim nil ventura sanitas prodest, non magis quam currentem luctantemque post multos secuturum menses otium reficit.
”Wisdom is a good, to be wise is not a good”; thus it happens that we are denied to be wise, and this whole study is mocked as if occupied with superfluous things. What if you knew that it is also asked whether future wisdom is a good? For what doubt is there, I ask you, whether barns do not yet feel the future harvest, nor childhood understand the future youth by its strength or any vigor? Meanwhile, future health is of no benefit to a sick person, any more than the rest that will follow after many months refreshes one who is running and wrestling.
Quis nescit hoc ipso non esse bonum id, quod futurum est, quia futurum est? Nam quod bonum est, utique prodest. Nisi praesentia prodesse non possunt; si non prodest, bonum non est; si prodest, iam est. Futurus sum sapiens; hoc bonum erit, cum fuero, interim non est. Prius aliquid esse debet, deinde quale esse.
Who does not know that a future thing is not a good by this very fact, because it is future? For what is good surely benefits. Only present things can benefit; if it does not benefit, it is not a good; if it benefits, it already exists. I shall be wise in the future; this will be a good when I am so, but meanwhile it is not. A thing must first exist, and then be of a certain kind.
Quomodo, oro te, quod adhuc nihil est, iam bonum est? Quomodo autem tibi magis vis probari non esse aliquid, quam si dixero: futurum est? Nondum enim venisse apparet quod venit, ver secuturum est: scio nunc hiemem esse. Aestas secutura est: scio aestatem non esse. Maximum argumentum habeo nondum praesentis futurum esse.
How, I ask you, is that which is still nothing already a good? And how do you wish it to be proved to you more clearly that a thing does not exist, than if I say: “it is future”? For it is clear that what is coming has not yet arrived; spring will follow, but I know that it is now winter. Summer will follow; I know that it is not summer. I have the greatest proof of what is not yet present, that it is future.
Sapiam, spero, sed interim non sapio. Si illud bonum haberem, iam hoc carerem malo. Futurum est, ut sapiam; ex hoc licet nondum sapere me intellegas. Non possum simul et in illo bono et in hoc malo esse; duo ista non coeunt nec apud eundem sunt una malum et bonum.
I shall be wise, I hope, but meanwhile I am not wise. If I had that good, I would already be free from this evil. I shall be wise in the future; from this you may understand that I am not yet wise. I cannot be both in that good and in this evil at the same time; those two do not go together, nor are evil and good present together in the same person.
Transcurramus sollertissimas nugas et ad illa, quae nobis aliquam opem sunt latura, properemus. Nemo, qui obstetricem parturienti filiae sollicitus accersit, edictum et ludorum ordinem perlegit. Nemo, qui ad incendium domus suae currit, tabulam latrunculariam prospicit, ut sciat, quomodo alligatus exeat calculus.
Let us pass over these most clever trifles and hasten to those things which will bring us some help. No one who anxiously summons a midwife for his daughter in labor reads through an edict and the program of the games. No one who runs to the fire of his own house looks at a draughtboard to see how a blocked piece may escape.
At mehercule omnia tibi undique nuntiantur, et incendium domus et periculum liberorum et obsidio patriae et bonorum direptio; adice isto naufragia motusque terrarum et quicquid aliud timeri potest; inter ista districtus rebus nihil aliud quam animum oblectantibus4 vacas? Quid inter sapientiam et sapere intersit, inquiris? Nodos nectis ac solvis tanta mole impendente capiti tuo?
Yet, by Hercules, all kinds of news are announced to you from all sides: the burning of your house, the danger of your children, the siege of your country, the plundering of your property; add to this shipwrecks, earthquakes, and whatever else can be feared; distracted among these things, do you devote your leisure to matters that do nothing but amuse the mind? Do you inquire what the difference is between wisdom and being wise? Do you tie and untie knots when such a great mass hangs over your head?
Non tam benignum ac liberale tempus natura nobis dedit, ut aliquid ex illo vacet perdere.5 Et vide, quam multa etiam diligentissimis pereant: aliud valetudo sua cuique abstulit, aliud suorum; aliud necessaria negotia, aliud publica occupaverunt; vitam nobiscum dividit somnus. Ex hoc tempore tam angusto et rapido et nos auferente quid iuvat maiorem partem mittere in vanum?
Nature has not given us such a kind and free time that we have any of it to waste. And see how much is lost even to the most diligent: one’s own ill health takes away some from each, that of one’s family takes away another; necessary business occupies some, public duties occupy others; sleep divides our life with us. From this time so narrow, rapid, and carrying us away, what does it please to send the greater part into emptiness?
Adice nunc, quod adsuescit animus delectare se potius quam sanare et philosophiam oblectamentum facere, cum remedium sit. Inter sapientiam et sapere quid intersit nescio; scio mea non interesse, sciam ista an nesciam.6 Dic mihi: cum quid inter sapientiam et sapere intersit didicero, sapiam? Cur ergo potius inter vocabula me sapientiae detines quam inter opera? Fac me fortiorem, fac securiorem, fac fortunae parem, fac superiorem. Possum autem superior esse, si derexero eo omne, quod disco. VALE.
Add now that the mind becomes accustomed to amuse itself rather than to heal itself, and to make philosophy a pastime when it is a remedy. I do not know what the difference is between wisdom and being wise; I know that it does not concern me whether I know those things or not. Tell me: when I have learned what the difference is between wisdom and being wise, shall I be wise? Why then do you keep me among the words of wisdom rather than among its works? Make me stronger, make me more secure, make me equal to fortune, make me superior to it. I can, however, be superior, if I direct everything I learn to that end. FAREWELL.
- 117.24hic mortis est fructus, optare desinere
The infinitive phrase optare desinere (to cease wishing) is in apposition with the demonstrative hic and fructus (fruit). It asserts that the ultimate benefit of choosing death lies in being freed from the constant anxiety of wishing.
- 117.26sic fit, ut negemur sapere
negemur is a personal passive construction with the prolative infinitive sapere, meaning 'we are denied to be wise'. Instead of the impersonal construction negatur nos sapere, Latin prefers the personal construction where the subject of the infinitive becomes the subject of the main passive verb.
- 117.26Quid enim dubi est, oro te, an ...
Quid dubi est utilizes the partitive genitive dubi ('what of doubt is there'). The following an clause with subjunctive verbs introduces an indirect question, but in this rhetorical context, it strongly implies that there is absolutely no doubt that the statement is false (i.e., 'how can there be any doubt that barns do not yet feel...').
- 117.31nihil aliud quam animum oblectantibus
This participle phrase modifies rebus (dative, governed by vacas). nihil aliud quam ('nothing other than', 'merely') modifies the present participle oblectantibus, meaning 'matters that do nothing but amuse the mind.'
- 117.32ut aliquid ex illo vacet perdere
ut introduces a consecutive (result) clause. vacet is used here with the meaning of 'there is leisure or room' and takes the infinitive perdere (to waste), meaning 'that there is any leisure to waste any of it.'
- 117.33scio mea non interesse, sciam ista an nesciam
mea non interesse is an accusative and infinitive construction with the impersonal verb interest, where the ablative feminine singular possessive pronoun mea expresses 'it is of interest to me'. The following sciam... an nesciam is a disjunctive clause with present subjunctives expressing concession: 'whether I know these things or do not know them.'
Translated by Gemini 3.5 Flash (published 2026-05-25) · Revision history (2, latest 2026-09-22)
- 2026-09-22 AI review — source 1
- 2026-09-21 AI review — translation 1