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| タイトル | ： 第22回 |
| 投稿日 | ： 2004/02/21(Sat) 21:14 |
| 投稿者 | ： 惣田正明 |
第22回テキスト
---はじめ---
I will tell you, Socrates, he said, what my own feeling is.
Men of my age flock together; we are birds of a feather, as
the old proverb says; and at our meetings the tale of my
acquaintance commonly is --I cannot eat, I cannot drink; the
pleasures of youth and love are fled away: there was a good
time once, but now that is gone, and life is no longer life.
Some complain of the slights which are put upon them by
relations, and they will tell you sadly of how many evils
their old age is the cause. But to me, Socrates, these
complainers seem to blame that which is not really in fault.
For if old age were the cause, I too being old, and every
other old man, would have felt as they do. But this is not my
own experience, nor that of others whom I have known. How
well I remember the aged poet Sophocles, when in answer to
the question, How does love suit with age, Sophocles, --are
you still the man you were? Peace, he replied; most gladly
have I escaped the thing of which you speak; I feel as if I
had escaped from a mad and furious master. His words have
often occurred to my mind since, and they seem as good to me
now as at the time when he uttered them. For certainly old
age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when the passions
relax their hold, then, as Sophocles says, we are freed from
the grasp not of one mad master only, but of many. The truth
is, Socrates, that these regrets, and also the complaints
about relations, are to be attributed to the same cause,
which is not old age, but men's characters and tempers; for
he who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the
pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition
youth and age are equally a burden.
I listened in admiration, and wanting to draw him out, that
he might go on --Yes, Cephalus, I said: but I rather suspect
that people in general are not convinced by you when you
speak thus; they think that old age sits lightly upon you,
not because of your happy disposition, but because you are
rich, and wealth is well known to be a great comforter.
---終わり---