§83.1Singulos dies tibi meos et quidem totos indicari iubes; bene de me iudicas, si nihil esse in illis putas, quod abscondam.
You command me to report to you my individual days, and indeed in their entirety; you judge well of me, if you think there is nothing in them for me to hide.
Sic certe vivendum est, tamquam in conspectu vivamus; sic cogitandum, tamquam aliquis in pectus intimum introspicere possit; et potest.
Surely we ought to live in such a way, as if we were living in the sight of all; we ought to think in such a way, as if someone could look into our inmost breast; and he can.
Quid enim prodest ab homine aliquid esse secretum? Nihil deo clusum est.
For what does it profit that something is secret from man? Nothing is closed to God.
Interest animis nostris et cogitationibus mediis intervenit—sic intervenit, dico, tamquam aliquando discedat.
He is present in our minds and enters into the midst of our thoughts—enters, I say, not as if He ever departs.
§83.2Faciam ergo, quod iubes, et quid agam et quo ordine, libenter tibi scribam.
Therefore I will do what you command, and I will gladly write to you what I am doing and in what order.
Observabo me protinus et, quod est utilissimum, diem meum recognoscam.
I will observe myself immediately and, what is most useful, review my day.
Hoc nos pessimos facit, quod nemo vitam suam respicit.
This makes us worst of all, that no one looks back upon his own life.
Quid facturi simus cogitamus.
We think about what we are going to do.
Atqui consilium futuri ex praeterito venit.
And yet, plans for the future come from the past.
§83.3Hodiernus dies solidas est; nemo ex illo quicquam mihi eripuit.
Today's day is solid; no one has snatched anything from me out of it.
Totus inter stratum lectionemque divisus est.
It has been divided entirely between my couch and reading.
Minimum exercitationi corporis datum, et hoc nomine ago gratias senectuti: non magno mihi constat; cum me movi, lassus sum.
Very little has been given to bodily exercise, and on this account I give thanks to old age: it does not cost me much; as soon as I move, I am tired.
Hic autem est exercitationis etiam fortissimis finis.
But this is the limit of exercise even for the strongest.
§83.4Progymnastas meos quaeris? Unus mihi sufficit Pharius puer, ut scis, amabilis, sed mutabitur.
Do you ask who my trainers are? One is enough for me, the boy Pharius, lovable, as you know, but he will be changed.
Iam aliquem teneriorem quaero.
I am already looking for someone younger.
Hic quidem ait nos eandem crisin habere, quia utrique dentes cadunt.
He, indeed, says that we have the same crisis, because teeth are falling out for both of us.
Sed iam vix illum adsequor currentem et intra paucissimos dies non potero; vide, quid exercitatio cotidiana proficiat.
But now I can scarcely catch him as he runs, and within a very few days I will not be able to; see what daily exercise accomplishes.
Cito magnum intervallum fit inter duos in diversum euntes.
Quickly a great interval is made between two going in opposite directions.
Eodem tempore ille adscendit, ego descendo, nec ignoras, quanto ex his velocius alterum fiat.
At the same time he ascends, I descend, and you are not ignorant of how much faster the latter of these happens.
Mentitus sum; iam enim aetas nostra non descendit, sed cadit.
I have lied; for now our age does not descend, but falls.
§83.5Quomodo tamen hodiernum certamen nobis cesserit quaeris? Quod raro cursoribus evenit, hieran fecimus.
However, do you ask how today's contest turned out for us? What rarely happens to runners, we made a tie.
Ab hac fatigatione magis quam exercitatione in frigidam descendi; hoc apud me vocatur parum calda.
After this fatigue rather than exercise, I went down into the cold bath; this is called "insufficiently warm" at my house.
Ille tantus psychrolutes, qui kalendis Ianuariis euripum salutabam, qui anno novo quemadmodum legere, scribere, dicere aliquid, sic auspicabar in Virginem desilire, primum ad Tiberim transtuli castra, deinde ad hoc solium, quod, cum fortissimus sum et omnia bona fide fiunt, sol temperat.
I, that great cold-bather, who on the Kalends of January used to greet the canal, who in the New Year, just as I would inaugurate reading, writing, and saying something, so used to leap down into the Aqua Virgo, have first transferred my camp to the Tiber, then to this bath-tub, which, even when I am at my bravest and everything is done in good faith, the sun warms.
Non multum mihi ad balneum superest.
There is not much left for me to reach the warm bath.
§83.6Panis deinde siccus et sine mensa prandium, post quod non sunt lavandae manus.
Then dry bread and a lunch without a table, after which hands do not need to be washed.
Dormio minimum.
I sleep very little.
Consuetudinem meam nosti: brevissimo somno utor et quasi interiungo.
You know my custom: I take a very short sleep and, as it were, unyoke in the middle of the journey.
Satis est mihi vigilare desisse.
It is enough for me to have ceased to be awake.
Aliquando dormisse me scio, aliquando suspicor.
Sometimes I know that I have slept, sometimes I suspect it.
§83.7Ecce circensium obstrepit clamor.
Behold, the roar of the games resounds.
Subita aliqua et universa voce feriuntur aures meae.
My ears are struck by some sudden and universal shout.
Nec cogitationem meam excutiunt, ne interrumpunt quidem.
Yet they do not shake my thought, nor do they even interrupt it.
Fremitum patientissime fero.
I bear the roar very patiently.
Multae voces et in unum confusae pro fluctu mihi sunt aut vento silvam verberante et ceteris sine intellectu sonantibus.
Many voices confused into one are to me like a wave or the wind whipping a forest and other meaningless sounds.
§83.8Quid ergo est nunc, cui animum adiecerim? Dicam.
What is it, then, now to which I have applied my mind? I will tell you.
Superest ex hesterno mihi cogitatio: quid sibi voluerint prudentissimi viri, qui rerum maximarum probationes levissimas et perplexas fecerunt, quae ut sint verae, tamen mendacio similes sunt.
A thought remains to me from yesterday: what did those most wise men mean, who made the proofs of the greatest things so trivial and intricate, which, even though they may be true, nevertheless resemble a lie.
§83.9Vult nos ab ebrietate deterrere Zenon, vir maximus, huius sectae fortissimae ac sanctissimae conditor.
Zeno, that greatest of men, the founder of this most brave and holy sect, wishes to deter us from drunkenness.
Audi ergo, quemadmodum colligat virum bonum non futurum ebrium: "ebrio secretum sermonem nemo committit; viro autem bono committit; ergo vir bonus ebrius non erit. "Quemadmodum opposita interrogatione simili derideatur, adtende.
Hear, therefore, how he concludes that a good man will not be drunk: "To a drunkard no one commits a secret conversation; but to a good man one commits it; therefore, a good man will not be drunk." Attend to how he is mocked by a similar opposed question.
Satis est enim unam ponere ex multis: "dormienti nemo secretum sermonem committit; viro autem bono committit; vir bonus ergo non dormit. " §83.10Quo uno modo potest, Posidonius Zenonis nostri causam agit, sed ne sic quidem, ut existimo, agi potest.
For it is enough to put forward one out of many: "To a sleeping man no one commits a secret conversation; but to a good man one commits it; therefore, a good man does not sleep." In the only way possible, Posidonius pleads the cause of our Zeno, but not even in this way, as I think, can it be pleaded.
Ait enim ebrium duobus modis dici: altero, cum aliquis vino gravis est et inpos sui; altero, si solet ebrius fieri et huic obnoxius vitio est.
For he says that a drunkard is spoken of in two ways: in one way, when someone is heavy with wine and not master of himself; in the other way, if he is accustomed to get drunk and is subject to this vice.
Hunc a Zenone dici, qui soleat fieri ebrius, non qui sit.
That the latter, who is accustomed to get drunk, is meant by Zeno, not the former, who is actually drunk.