§2.2.146Si tibi nulla sitim finiret copia lymphae, §2.2.147narrares medicis: quod, quanto plura parasti, §2.2.148tanto plura cupis, nulline faterier audes?
If no abundance of water could quench your thirst, you would tell the doctors: but that, by how much more you have acquired, by so much more you desire, do you dare to confess to no one?
§2.2.149si volnus tibi monstrata radice vel herba §2.2.150non fieret levius, fugeres radice vel herba §2.2.151proficiente nihil curarier: audieras, cui §2.2.152rem di donarent, illi decedere pravam §2.2.153stultitiam; et cum sis nihilo sapientior ex quo §2.2.154plenior es, tamen uteris monitoribus isdem?
If your wound, by a prescribed root or herb, did not become lighter, you would avoid being cured by root or herb that profited nothing: you had heard that to whomsoever the gods gave wealth, from him departed perverse folly; and though you are not a whit wiser since you have been richer, do you still employ the same advisors?
§2.2.155At si divitiae prudentem reddere possent, §2.2.156si cupidum timidumque minus te, nempe ruberes, §2.2.157viveret in terris te si quis avari or uno.
But if riches could make you wise, if they could make you less covetous and fearful, surely you would blush if anyone lived on earth more avaricious than you alone.
§2.2.158si proprium est, quod quis libra mercatus et aere est, §2.2.159quaedam, si credis consultis, mancipat usus; §2.2.160qui te pascit ager tuus est, et vilicus Orbi, §2.2.161cum segetes occat tibi mox frumenta daturas, §2.2.162te dominum sentit, das nummos, accipis uvam, §2.2.163pullos, ova, cadum temeti: nempe modo isto §2.2.164paulatim mercaris agrum, fortasse trecentis §2.2.165aut etiam supra nummorum milibus emptum.
If that is one's own, which one has bought with scale and bronze, some things, if you believe the lawyers, usage makes one's own; the field which feeds you is yours, and the bailiff of Orbius, when he harrows the fields soon to give grain to you, he feels you as master. You give coins, you receive grapes, chickens, eggs, a jar of wine: indeed, in that manner by degrees you purchase the field, bought perhaps for three hundred or even more thousands of coins.
§2.2.166quid refert, vivas numerato nuper an olim?
What does it matter, whether you live on what was paid for recently or long ago?
§2.2.167emptor Aricini quondam Veientis et arvi §2.2.168emptum cenat holus, quamvis aliter putat; emptis §2.2.169sub noctem gelidam lignis calefactat aënum; §2.2.170sed vocat usque suum, qua populus adsita certis §2.2.171limitibus vicina refugit iurgia; tamquam §2.2.172sit proprium quicquam, puncto quod mobilis horae §2.2.173nunc prece, nunc pretio, nunc vi, nunc morte suprema §2.2.174permutet dominos et cedat in altera iura.
The buyer of an Arician or a Veientian field once sups on bought greens, though he thinks otherwise; with bought logs under the cold night he heats his copper kettle; but he calls it all his own, up to where the planted poplar with fixed boundaries avoids neighboring disputes; as if anything were one's own, which in a moment of a fleeting hour now by prayer, now by price, now by force, now by final death it changes masters and passes into other hands.
§2.2.175sic quia perpetuus nulli datur usus, et heres §2.2.176heredem alterius velut unda supervenit undam, §2.2.177quid vici prosunt aut horrea? quidve Calabris §2.2.178saltibus adiecti Lucani, si metit Orcus §2.2.179grandia cum parvis, non exorabilis auro?
Thus since perpetual use is granted to no one, and heir overtakes another's heir as wave overtakes wave, what do manors or granaries profit? or what Lucanian pastures added to Calabrian, if Orcus reaps great things with small, not to be appeased by gold?
§2.2.180Gemmas, marmor, ebur, Tyrrhena sigilla, tabellas, §2.2.181argentum, vestes Gaetulo murice tinctas §2.2.182sunt qui non habeant, est qui non curat habere,
Gems, marble, ivory, Etruscan statuettes, paintings, silver, garments dyed with Gaetulian purple, there are those who do not have, there is one who does not care to have.
§2.2.183cur alter fratrum cessare et ludere et ungui §2.2.184praeferat Herodis palmetis pinguibus, alter §2.2.185dives et importunus ad umbram lucis ab ortu §2.2.186silvestrem flammis et ferro mitiget agrum, §2.2.187scit Genius, natale comes qui temperat astrum, §2.2.188naturae deus humanae, mortalis in unum §2.2.189quodque caput, voltu mutabilis, albus et ater.
Why one of two brothers prefers to idle and play and be anointed rather than the rich palm-groves of Herod, while the other, rich and restless, from sunrise to the shadow of night, tames his woody field with flames and iron, the Genius knows, the companion who tempers our birth star, the god of human nature, mortal for each single head, changeable in aspect, white and black.
§2.2.190utar et ex modico, quantum res poscet, acervo §2.2.191tollam, nec metuam quid de me iudicet heres, §2.2.192quod non plura datis invenerit; et tamen idem §2.2.193scire volam, quantum simplex hilarisque nepoti §2.2.194discrepet et quantum discordet parcus avaro.
I will use, and from my moderate heap, as much as need demands, I will take, nor will I fear what my heir may judge of me, because he has not found more than what was left to him; and yet the same I will wish to know, how much the simple and cheerful differs from the prodigal, and how much the frugal differs from the miserly.
§2.2.195distat enim, spargas tua prodigus, an neque sumptum §2.2.196invitus facias neque plura parare labores, §2.2.197ac potius, puer ut festis Quinquatribus olim, §2.2.198exiguo gratoque fruaris tempore raptim,
For there is a difference, whether you scatter your wealth like a prodigal, or neither make expense unwillingly nor labor to acquire more, but rather, as once a boy in the festive Quinquatrus, you enjoy the brief and pleasant time hastily.
§2.2.199pauperies immunda domus procul absit: ego, utrum §2.2.200nave ferar magna an parva, ferar unus et idem.
Let sordid poverty be far from my house: whether I am carried in a large ship or a small one, I shall be carried one and the same.
§2.2.201non agimur tumidis velis Aquilone secundo: §2.2.202non tamen adversis aetatem ducimus Austris, §2.2.203viribus, ingenio, specie, virtute, loco, re §2.2.204extremi primorum, extremis usque priores.
We are not driven with swelling sails by a favorable North wind; yet we do not lead our life under adverse South winds; in strength, genius, appearance, virtue, station, fortune, the last of the first, yet always ahead of the last.
§2.2.205Non es avarus: abi.
You are not covetous: depart.
quid? cetera iam simul isto §2.2.206cum vitio fugere? caret tibi pectus inani
What? Have the other vices now along with that vice fled?
§2.2.207ambitione? caret mortis formidine et ira?
Does your breast lack empty ambition? does it lack the fear of death and anger?
§2.2.208somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas, §2.2.209nocturnos lemures portentaque Thessala rides?
Do you laugh at dreams, magic terrors, wonders, witches, nightly ghosts, and Thessalian portents?
§2.2.210natalis grate numeras? ignoscis amicis?
Do you gratefully count your birthdays? Do you forgive your friends?
§2.2.211lenior et melior fis accedente senecta?
Do you become gentler and better as old age approaches?
§2.2.212quid te exempta iuvat spinis de pluribus una?
What does it help you that one thorn is pulled out of many?
§2.2.213vivere si recte nescis, decede peritis,
If you do not know how to live rightly, make way for those who do.
§2.2.214lusisti satis, edisti satis atque bibisti: §2.2.215tempus abire tibi est, ne potum largius aequo §2.2.216rideat et pulset lasciva decentius aetas.
You have played enough, you have eaten enough and drunk enough: it is time for you to depart, lest after drinking more than is fit the age which is more becomingly wanton mock and push you.