§49.1Est quidem, mi Lucili, supinus et neglegens, qui in amici memoriam ab aliqua regione admonitus inducitur; tamen repositum in animo nostro desiderium loca interdum familiaria evocant nec extinctum memoriam reddunt, sed quiescentem inritant, sicut dolorem lugentium, etiam si mitigatus est tempore, aut servulus familiaris amisso aut vestis aut domus renovat.
Indeed, my Lucilius, he is lazy and careless who is led to the memory of a friend only when reminded by some locality; nevertheless, familiar places sometimes evoke the longing stored in our minds, not restoring an extinct memory, but stirring it up from its sleep, just as either a familiar servant of the lost one, or a garment, or a house renews the grief of those in mourning, even if it has been mitigated by time.
Ecce Campania et maxime Neapolis ac Pompeiorum tuorum conspectus incredibile est quam recens desiderium tui fecerint; totus mihi in oculis es.
Behold, Campania, and especially Naples and the sight of your beloved Pompeii, it is incredible how fresh a longing for you they have created; you are entirely before my eyes.
Cum maxime a te discedo.
At this very moment I am parting from you.
Video lacrimas conbibentem et adfectibus tuis inter ipsam coercitionem exeuntibus non satis resistentem.
I see you blinking back your tears and not resisting enough your emotions as they break out in the midst of your very self-restraint.
Modo amisisse te videor.
I seem to have lost you only just now.
§49.2Quid enim non "modo "est, si recorderis? Modo apud Sotionem philosophum puer sedi, modo causas agere coepi, modo desii velle agere, modo desii posse.
For what is not 'just now', if you look back? Just now as a boy I sat at the feet of Sotion the philosopher; just now I began to plead cases; just now I ceased to wish to plead; just now I ceased to be able to.
Infinita est velocitas temporis, quae magis apparet respicientibus.
Infinite is the swiftness of time, which appears more clearly to those who look back.
Nam ad praesentia intentos fallit; adeo praecipitis fugae transitus lenis est.
For it deceives those intent on the present; so gentle is the passage of its headlong flight.
§49.3Causam huius rei quaeris? Quicquid temporis transit, eodem loco est; pariter aspicitur, una iacet.
Do you ask the cause of this? Whatever of time passes is in the same place; it is viewed equally, it lies together.
Omnia in idem profundum cadunt.
All things fall into the same abyss.
Et alioqui non possunt longa intervalla esse in ea re, quae tota brevis est.
And besides, there cannot be long intervals in a thing which is entirely short.
Punctum est quod vivimus et adhuc puncto minus.
A single point is what we live, and even less than a point.
Sed et hoc minimum specie quadam longioris spatii natura derisit; aliud ex hoc infantiam fecit, aliud pueritiam, aliud adulescentiam, aliud inclinationem quandam ab adulescentia ad senectutem, aliud ipsam senectutem.
But nature has mocked even this minimum with a certain appearance of a longer space; of this she made one part infancy, another childhood, another youth, another a certain decline from youth to old age, and another old age itself.
In quam angusto quodam quot gradus posuit!
In how narrow a span has she placed how many steps!
§49.4Modo te prosecutus sum; et tamen hoc "modo" aetatis nostrae bona portio est, cuius brevitatem aliquando defecturam cogitemus.
Just now I escorted you; and yet this 'just now' is a good portion of our life, whose brevity we should consider destined to fail us at some point.
Non solebat mihi tam velox tempus videri; nunc incredibilis cursus apparet, sive quia admoveri lineas sentio, sive quia adtendere coepi et conputare damnum meum.
Time did not use to seem so swift to me; now its incredible course appears, whether because I feel the finish lines approaching, or because I have begun to pay attention and calculate my loss.
§49.5Eo magis itaque indignor aliquos ex hoc tempore, quod sufficere ne ad necessaria quidem potest, etiam si custoditum diligentissime fuerit, in supervacua maiorem partem erogare.
Therefore, I am the more indignant that some people spend the greater part of this time—which cannot suffice even for necessary things, even if it has been guarded most diligently—on superfluous things.
Negat Cicero, si duplicetur sibi aetas, habiturum se tempus, quo legat lyricos; eodem loco pone dialecticos;
Cicero says that, even if his life were doubled, he would not have time to read the lyric poets; put the dialecticians in the same category; they are more gloomily foolish.
tristius inepti sunt. Illi ex professo lasciviunt, hi agere ipsos aliquid existimant.
The former behave playfully by profession, while the latter think they are actually accomplishing something.
§49.6Nec ego nego prospicienda ista, sed prospicienda tantum et a limine salutanda in hoc unum, ne verba nobis dentur et aliquid esse in illis magni ac secreti boni iudicemus.
Nor do I deny that those things should be looked into, but only looked into and greeted from the threshold for this one purpose, lest we be deceived and judge that there is some great and secret good in them.
Quid te torques et maceras in ea quaestione, quam subtilius est contempsisse quam solvere? Securi est et ex commodo migrantis minuta conquirere; cum hostis instat a tergo et movere se iussus est miles, necessitas excutit quicquid pax otiosa collegerat.
Why do you torture and torment yourself in that question, which it is more elegant to have despised than to have solved? It is the mark of a man who is secure and traveling at his leisure to seek out tiny trifles; when the enemy presses from behind and the soldier is ordered to march, necessity shakes out whatever peaceful leisure had gathered.