§117.24Ita quamprimum moriar": "quamprimum "istud quid esse vis? Quem illi diem ponis? Citius fieri quam optas, potest.
"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.
Inbecillae mentis ista sunt verba et hac detestatione misericordiam captantis; non vult mori qui optat.
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.
Deos vitam et salutem roga; si mori placuit, hic mortis est fructus, optare desinere.
Ask the gods for life and health; if you have decided to die, this is the fruit of death, to cease wishing.
§117.25Haec, mi Lucili, tractemus, his formemus animum.
Let us treat these things, my Lucilius, and by these shape our mind.
Hoc est sapientia, hoc est sapere, non disputatiunculis inanibus subtilitatem vanissimam agitare.
This is wisdom, this is to be wise, not to stir up a most vain subtlety with empty trifling discussions.
Tot quaestiones fortuna tibi posuit, nondum illas solvisti; iam cavillaris? Quam stultum est, cum signum pugnae acceperis, ventilare.
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 ista lusoria arma; decretoriis opus est.
Remove those toy weapons; we need decisive ones.
Dic, qua ratione nulla animum tristitia, nulla formido perturbet, qua ratione hoc secretarum cupiditatium pondus effundam. Agatur aliquid.
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.
" §117.26Sapientia bonum est, sapere non est bonum"; sic fit, ut negemur sapere, ut hoc totum studium derideatur tamquam operatum supervacuis.
Let something be done." "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.
Quid, si scires etiam illud quaeri, an 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.
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.
§117.27Quis nescit hoc ipso non esse bonum id, quod futurum est, quia futurum est? Nam quod bonum est, utique prodest.
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.
Nisi praesentia prodesse non possunt; si non prodest, bonum non est; si prodest, iam est.
Only present things can benefit; if it does not benefit, it is not a good; if it benefits, it already exists.
Futurus sum sapiens; hoc bonum erit, cum fuero, interim non est.
I shall be wise in the future; this will be a good when I am so, but meanwhile it is not.
Prius aliquid esse debet, deinde quale esse.
A thing must first exist, and then be of a certain kind.
§117.28Quomodo, 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.
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.
Aestas secutura est: scio aestatem non esse.
Summer will follow; I know that it is not summer.
Maximum argumentum habeo nondum praesentis futurum esse.
I have the greatest proof of what is not yet present, that it is future.
§117.29Sapiam, spero, sed interim non sapio.
I shall be wise, I hope, but meanwhile I am not wise.
Si illud bonum haberem, iam hoc carerem malo.
If I had that good, I would already be free from this evil.
Futurum est, ut sapiam; ex hoc licet nondum sapere me intellegas.
I shall be wise in the future; from this you may understand that I am not yet wise.
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 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.
§117.30Transcurramus sollertissimas nugas et ad illa, quae nobis aliquam opem sunt latura, properemus.
Let us pass over these most clever trifles and hasten to those things which will bring us some help.
Nemo, qui obstetricem parturienti filiae sollicitus accersit, edictum et ludorum ordinem perlegit.
No one who anxiously summons a midwife for his daughter in labor reads through an edict and the program of the games.
Nemo, qui ad incendium domus suae currit, tabulam latrunculariam prospicit, ut sciat, quomodo alligatus exeat calculus.
No one who runs to the fire of his own house looks at a draughtboard to see how a blocked piece may escape.
§117.31At 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 oblectantibus 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?
§117.32Non tam benignum ac liberate tempus natura nobis dedit, ut aliquid ex illo vacet perdere.
Nature has not given us such a kind and free time that we have any of it to waste.
Et vide, quam multa etiam diligentissimis pereant: aliud valetudo sua cuique abstulit, aliud suorum; aliud necessaria negotia, aliud publica occupaverunt; vitam nobiscum dividit somnus.
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 more; necessary business occupies some, public duties occupy others; sleep divides our life with us.
Ex hoc tempore tam angusto et rapido et nos auferente quid iuvat maiorem partem mittere in vanum?
From this time so narrow, rapid, and carrying us away, what does it please to send the greater part into emptiness?
§117.33Adice nunc, quod adsuescit animus delectare se potius quam sanare et philosophiam oblectamentum facere, cum remedium sit.
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.
Inter sapientiam et sapere quid intersit nescio; scio mea non interesse, sciam ista an nesciam.
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.
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.
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.
Possum autem superior esse, si derexero eo omne, quod disco.
I can, however, be superior, if I direct everything I learn to that end.
VALE.
FAREWELL.