As the old
year gives way to the new, some of us (ahem) remain in the "old"
category. We can't seem to shake advancing age. Now, thanks to translator
Philip Freeman, we have an opportunity to examine some old words by an old man,
one who saw the weight of years not as a burden but as the fruit of one's
character.
Freeman teaches
classical languages at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, but he holds his
learning lightly in a fizzy new version of a book by the Roman orator Marcus
Tullius Cicero. "How To Grow Old: Ancient Wisdom For The Second Half Of
Life" ($16.95 in hardcover from Princeton University Press; also for
Amazon Kindle) was written "just before Caesar's murder on the Ides of
March in 44 BC."
Cicero
"was in his early sixties and alone." His daughter had died the
previous year and, not able to support Julius Caesar, he "had retired to his
country estate. There he remained, far from Rome, an old man in his own mind
useless to the world."
But just
as Cicero's last act seemed over, he began to write a series of treatises that
endure today, including one on old age. His fictional dialogue featured the
aged Roman leader Cato "from the previous century" in which
"Cato shows how old age can be the best phase of life for those who apply
themselves to living wisely."
The Latin
text in Freeman's book is followed by his translation (with notes identifying
all the names), and he summarizes Cicero's points in the introduction. Key:
"A good old age begins in youth," Freeman writes, with habits of
"moderation, wisdom, clear thinking, enjoying all that life has to
offer."
"Cato"
tells his young questioners that "older people who are reasonable,
good-tempered, and gracious will bear aging well. Those who are mean-spirited
and irritable will be unhappy at every period of their lives." He's
realistic. "It isn't a light burden if a person, even a wise man, is poor.
But if someone is a fool, all the money in the world won't make aging
easier."
Words that
will never grow old.
No comments:
Post a Comment