§77.11Nemo tam imperitus est, ut nesciat quandoque moriendum; tamen cum prope accessit, tergiversatur, tremit, plorat.
No one is so ignorant as not to know that we must die at some time; yet when it comes near, he hesitates, trembles, and laments.
Nonne tibi videbitur stultissimus omnium, qui flevit, quod ante annos mille non vixerat? Aeque stultus est, qui fiet, quod post annos mille non vivet.
Will he not seem to you the most foolish of all, who wept because he had not lived a thousand years before? Equally foolish is he who will weep because he will not be alive a thousand years from now.
Haec paria sunt; non eris nec fuisti.
These things are equal; you will not be, nor have you been.
Utrumque tempus alienum est.
Both times belong to another.
§77.12In hoc punctum coniectus es, quod ut extendas, quo usque extendes? Quid fles? Quid optas? Perdis operam.
You have been cast into this single point; to extend this, how far will you extend it? Why do you weep? What do you wish? You lose your labor.
"
Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando.
"Cease to hope that the decrees of the gods can be bent by prayer.
"
Rata et fixa sunt et magna atque aeterna necessitate ducuntur.
"They are fixed and settled, and are guided by a great and eternal necessity.
Eo ibis, quo omnia eunt.
You will go where all things go.
Quid tibi novi est? Ad hanc legem natus es.
What is new to you? You were born under this law.
Hoc patri tuo accidit, hoc matri, hoc maioribus, hoc omnibus ante te, hoc omnibus post te.
This happened to your father, to your mother, to your ancestors, to everyone before you, and to everyone after you.
Series invicta et nulla mutabilis ope inligavit ac trahit cuncta.
An invincible series of causes, unchangeable by any power, has bound and drags all things.
§77.13Quantus te populus moriturorum sequetur? Quantus comitabitur? Fortior, ut opinor, esses, si multa milia tibi commorerentur; atqui multa milia et hominum et animalium hoc ipso momento, quo tu mori dubitas, animam variis generibus emittunt.
How great a crowd of those about to die will follow you? How great a crowd will accompany you? You would be braver, I think, if many thousands were dying with you; yet many thousands of both men and animals, at this very moment when you hesitate to die, are giving up their breath in various ways.
Tu autem non putabas te aliquando ad id perventurum, ad quod semper ibas? Nullum sine exitu iter est.
But did you not think that you would someday arrive where you were always going? There is no journey without an end.
§77.14Exempla nunc magnorum virorum me tibi iudicas relaturum? Puerorum referam.
Do you judge that I am now going to relate to you the examples of great men? I shall relate those of boys.
Lacon ille memoriae traditur inpubis adhuc, qui captus clamabat "non serviam" sua illa Dorica lingua, et verbis fidem inposuit; ut primum iussus est servili fungi et contumelioso ministerio, adferre enim vas obscenum iubebatur, inlisum parieti caput rupit.
That Spartan boy is recorded in memory, still under age, who, when captured, cried out in his own Doric tongue, "I will not serve," and made good his words; as soon as he was ordered to perform a slavish and insulting service (for he was ordered to bring a filthy vessel), he dashed his head against the wall and broke it.
§77.15Tam prope libertas est; et servit aliquis? Ita non sic perire filium tuum malles quam per inertiam senem fieri? Quid ergo est, cur perturberis, si mori fortiter etiam puerile est? Puta nolle te sequi; duceris.
Freedom is so near at hand; and does anyone serve? Would you not rather have your son perish thus than become an old man through idleness? What is there, then, for you to be disturbed about, if to die bravely is even a childish thing? Imagine that you are unwilling to follow; you will be dragged.
Fac tui iuris, quod alieni est.
Make your own what belongs to another.
Non sumes pueri spiritum, ut dicas "non servio"? Infelix, servis hominibus, servis rebus, servis vitae.
Will you not assume the spirit of a boy, so as to say, "I do not serve"? Unhappy man, you serve men, you serve things, you serve life.
Nam vita, si moriendi virtus abest, servitus est.
For life, if the virtue of dying is absent, is slavery.
§77.16Ecquid habes, propter quod expectes? Voluptates ipsas, quae te morantur ac retinent, consumpsisti.
Do you have anything for which you should wait? You have already consumed the pleasures themselves which delay and retain you.
Nulla tibi nova est, nulla non iam odiosa ipsa satietate.
None is new to you, none is not already odious by its very satiety.
Quis sit vini, quis mulsi sapor, scis.
You know what the taste of wine is, and what the taste of mead is.
Nihil interest, centum per vesicam tuam an mille amphorae transeant; saccus es.
It makes no difference whether a hundred or a thousand amphorae pass through your bladder; you are a strainer.
Quid sapiat ostreum, quid mullus, optime nosti; nihil tibi luxuria tua in futuros annos intactum reservavit; atqui haec sunt, a quibus invitus divelleris.
You know very well what an oyster tastes like, and what a mullet tastes like; your luxury has reserved nothing untouched for future years; yet these are the things from which you are torn away against your will.
§77.17Quid est aliud, quod tibi eripi doleas? Amicos? Quis enim tibi potest amicus esse? Patriam? Tanti enim illam putas, ut tardius cenes? Solem? Quem, si posses, extingueres.
What else is there that you grieve to have snatched from you? Friends? But who can be a friend to you? Your country? Do you value it so highly that you would dine later for its sake? The sun? Which, if you could, you would extinguish.
Quid enim umquam fecisti luce dignum? Confitere non curiae te, non fori, non ipsius rerum naturae desiderio tardiorem ad moriendum fieri; invitus relinquis macellum, in quo nihil reliquisti.
For what have you ever done that is worthy of the light? Confess that it is not out of longing for the senate-house, or the forum, or nature itself that you are slower to die; you leave unwillingly the food market, in which you have left nothing.
§77.18Mortem times; at quomodo illam media boletatione contemnis? Vivere vis;
You fear death; but how is it that you despise it in the middle of a mushroom-feast? You wish to live; but do you know how?
scis enim? Mori times;
You fear to die; what then?
quid porro? Ista vita non mors est? C Caesar, cum illum transeuntem per Latinam viam unus ex custodiarum agmine demissa usque in pectus vetere barba rogaret mortem: "nunc enim," inquit, "vivis? "Hoc istis respondendum est, quibus succursura mors est: mori times; nunc enim vivis?
Is not that life of yours death? When Gaius Caesar, as he was passing along the Latin Way, was asked for death by one of the line of prisoners with a long beard reaching down to his breast, he replied, "For do you live now?" This must be answered to those to whom death will be a relief: you fear to die; for do you live now?
§77.19"Sed ego," inquit, "vivere volo, qui multa honeste facio.
"But I," someone says, "wish to live, who do many things honorably.
Invitus relinquo officia vitae, quibus fideliter et industrie fungor. "Quid? Tu nescis unum esse ex vitae officiis et mori? Nullum officium relinquis. Non enim certus numerus, quem debeas explere, finitur.
I leave unwillingly the duties of life, which I perform faithfully and industriously." What? Do you not know that to die is also one of the duties of life? You leave no duty unfinished. For no fixed number which you must complete is determined.
§77.20Nulla vita est non brevis.
There is no life that is not short.
Nam si ad naturam rerum respexeris, etiam Nestoris et Sattiae brevis est, quae inscribi monumento suo iussit annis se nonaginta novem vixisse.
For if you look at the nature of things, even the life of Nestor and of Sattia is short, who ordered it to be inscribed on her monument that she had lived ninety-nine years.
Vides aliquem gloriari senectute longa.
You see someone boasting of a long old age.
Quis illam ferre potuisset, si contigisset centesimum implere? Quomodo fabula, sic vita non quam diu, sed quam bene acta sit, refert.
Who could have borne it, if it had fallen to his lot to complete his hundredth year? As a play, so life is valued not for how long, but for how well it has been acted.
Nihil ad rem pertinet, quo loco desinas.
It matters nothing in what place you stop.
Quocumque voles desine; tantum bonam clausulam inpone.
Stop wherever you wish; only add a good closing.
VALE.
FAREWELL.