§49.7Non vacat mihi verba dubie cadentia consectari et vafritiam in illis meam experiri.
I have no leisure to track down words of doubtful meaning and to test my cleverness on them.
"
Adspice qui coeant populi, quae moenia clusis
Ferrum acuant portis. "
Magno mihi animo strepitus iste belli circumsonantis exaudiendus est.
'Behold what nations are gathering, what cities with closed gates are sharpening the sword.' With a great mind, I must listen to that din of war sounding all around me.
§49.8Demens omnibus merito viderer, si cum saxa in munimentum murorum senes feminaeque congererent, cum iuventus intra portas armata signum eruptionis expectaret aut posceret, cum hostilia in portis tela vibrarent et ipsum solum suffossionibus et cuniculis tremeret, sederem otiosus et eiusmodi quaestiunculas ponens: "Quod non perdidisti, habes.
I should rightly seem mad to everyone if, while old men and women were piling up stones for the defense of the walls, while the armed youth within the gates were waiting for or demanding the signal for a sally, while enemy weapons were gleaming at the gates and the very ground was shaking with excavations and mines, I were to sit idle, propounding little questions of this sort: 'What you have not lost, you have.
Cornua autem non perdidisti; cornua ergo habes "aliaque ad exemplum huius acutae delirationis concinnata.
But you have not lost horns; therefore, you have horns,' and other things put together after the pattern of this sharp madness.
§49.9Atqui aeque licet tibi demens videar, si istis inpendero operam; et nunc obsideor.
And yet, you may well think me equally mad if I spend my labor on those things; even now I am besieged.
Tunc tamen periculum mihi obsesso externum inmineret, murus me ab hoste secerneret; nunc mortifera mecum sunt.
Yet then, a danger from without would threaten me in my siege, and a wall would separate me from the enemy; now, deadly perils are with me.
Non vaco ad istas ineptias; ingens negotium in manibus est.
I have no leisure for those follies; a massive task is in my hands.
Quid agam? Mors me sequitur, fugit vita; adversus haec me doce aliquid.
What am I to do? Death follows me, life flees; teach me something against these.
§49.10Effice, ut ego mortem non fugiam, vita me non effugiat.
Make it so that I do not flee death, and life does not flee me.
Exhortare adversus difficilia, adde aequanimitatem adversus inevitabilia.
Encourage me against difficulties, add equanimity against the inevitable.
Angustias temporis mei laxa.
Loosen the narrow limits of my time.
Doce non esse positum bonum vitae in spatio eius, sed in usu, posse fieri, immo saepissime fieri, ut qui diu vixit, parum vixerit.
Teach me that the good of life is not placed in its duration, but in its use, and that it can happen, indeed very often happens, that he who has lived long has lived too little.
Dic mihi dormituro: "Potes non expergisci"; dic experrecto: "Potes non dormire amplius. "Dic exeunti: "Potes non reverti"; dic redeunti: "Potes non exire. " §49.11Erras, si in navigatione tantum existimas minimum esse, quo a morte vita diducitur; in omni loco aeque tenue intervallum est.
Say to me when I am about to sleep: 'You may not wake up'; say to me when I have awakened: 'You may not sleep again.' Say to him who goes out: 'You may not return'; say to him who returns: 'You may not go out again.' You are mistaken if you think that only in navigation is there a very small space by which life is divided from death; in every place the interval is equally thin.
Non ubique se mors tam prope ostendit; ubique tam prope est.
Death does not show itself so close everywhere; it is just as close everywhere.
Has tenebras discute; et facilius ea trades, ad quae praeparatus sum.
Dispel this darkness; and you will more easily transmit those things for which I am prepared.
Dociles natura nos edidit et 12 rationem dedit inperfectam, sed quae perfici posset.
Nature has produced us teachable and has given us a reason which is imperfect, but capable of being perfected.
De iustitia mihi, de pietate disputa, de frugalitate, de pudicitia utraque, et illa, cui alieni corporis abstinentia est, et hac, cui sui cura.
Dispute with me about justice, about piety, about frugality, about both kinds of chastity, both that which consists in abstaining from another's body, and this which consists in the care of one's own.
Si me nolueris per devia ducere, facilius ad id, quo tendo, perveniam.
If you are unwilling to lead me through devious ways, I shall more easily arrive at that which I aim for.
Nam ut ait ille tragicus, Veritatis simplex oratio est. Ideoque illam inplicari non oportet; nec enim quicquam minus convenit quam subdola ista calliditas animis magna conantibus.
For, as that tragic poet says, 'The language of truth is simple.' And therefore it ought not to be entangled; nor indeed does anything less become minds striving after great things than that underhand cleverness of yours.
VALE.
FAREWELL.