ジャンル: 哲学
英語難易度: ★★★
オススメ度: ★★☆☆☆
うーん、もう少し刺さる内容かなと期待していたのですが、読み手の力不足のためか、スルッと読み終わってしまいました。 (英訳も古く、thyselfとかの古い綴りも多く、ちょっと読み辛かったというのも目が滑ってしまった理由の一つ)
実家のトイレにかけられてた日めくり格言カレンダーみたいな感じ。花束のような良い言葉の詰め合わせなんでしょうが、あまりにもブツブツと途切れていてあまり心に残らない。 自分としてはもう少し背景のストーリーとワンセットで読み込まないと、心には深く刻まれないようです。
同じくローマ帝国を舞台にした本として、塩野七生の「ローマ人の物語」(16〜20冊目に感想)を以前に読みましたが、その中の好きな章にキンキンナトゥスのお話があり、読んだ時にこんな感想を書いてました。
“カッコいい人物も登場。 Cincinnatusは控え目な農業主だが敵国に攻められたローマ国の危機を救うべくdictator (独裁官)に任命された。 鍬を置き指揮官のバトンを取った彼は、たった15日で外的鎮圧、翌日には独裁官の地位を返上して農夫の生活に戻ったそうな。 カッコ良すぎるだろー。”
キンキンナトゥスのストイックな行動は、本作の著者アウレリウスが標榜していたストア派の哲学と幾分か通じるものがありそうに感じましたが、登場人物の主義やポリシーについて背景のストーリーやエピソードを交えて読んだので、より深く印象に残った気がします。 一方、この「自省録」のように格言のような切り文では、自分にはあまり刺さりませんでした。 まあ、そもそもこの「自省録」は日記なんで、本人は他人に読ませることを意識していないのでしょうから、どう書こうと本人の勝手、アウレリウスがダメと言っているわけではありません。
(circa 180 )
メモポイント
それでも印象に残ったフレーズがいくつかありましたので、以下抜粋を。
⚫︎ 仏教の臨終正念に通ずる。
Do every deed, speak every word, think every thought in the knowledge that you may end your days any moment.
⚫︎ 心の静穏を得るためには場所は関係ないのだ。
Men seek retirement in the country, on the sea-coast, in the mountains; and you too have frequent longings for such distractions. Yet surely this is great folly, since you may retire into yourself at any hour you please. Nowhere can a man find any retreat more quiet and more full of leisure than in his own soul;
⚫︎ こんな哲人皇帝でも、オフトゥンが好きな気持ちは一緒。
In the morning, when you find yourself unwilling to rise, have this thought at hand: I arise to the proper business of man, and shall I repine at setting about that work for which I was born and brought into the world? Am I equipped for nothing but to lie among the bed-clothes and keep warm? “But,” you say, “it is more pleasant so.” Is pleasure, then, the object of your being, and not action, and the exercise of your powers? Do you not see the smallest plants, the little sparrows, the ants, the spiders, the bees, all doing their part, and working for order in the Universe, as far as in them lies? And will you refuse the part in this design which is laid on man? Will you not pursue the course which accords with your own nature?
⚫︎ デモクリトスの原子論は当時、一般常識だったのかな？ 現代科学のベースの考えと一致しているような。 当時から既に原子についての理解が進んでいることに驚く。
I consist of a formal and a material element. Neither of these two shall die and fade into nothingness, since neither came into being out of nothing. Every part of me, then, will be transformed and ranged again in some part of the Universe. That part of the Universe will itself be transmuted into another part, and so on for all time coming. By some such change as this I came into being, likewise my progenitors, and so back from all time past. There is no objection to this theory, even though the world be governed by determined cycles of revolution.
(中略)
Concerning death: If the Universe be a concourse of atoms, death is a scattering of these; if it be an ordered unity, death is an extinction or a translation to another state.
⚫︎ ワキガ、口臭なんてのも書いてる。 ローマ帝国の皇帝がこんなこと日記に書いてるなんて。なんか今と変わらない。
Are you angry with one whose armpits smell or whose breath is foul? What is the use? His mouth or his arm-pits are so, and the consequence must follow. But, you say, man is a reasonable being, and could by attention discern in what he offends. Very well, you too have reason. Use your reason to move his; instruct, admonish him. If he listens, you will cure him, and there will be no reason for anger. You are neither actor nor harlot.
⚫︎ これは中々できない。敵を作らない方法。
In the gymnasium, if some one scratches us with his nails, or in a sudden onset bruises our head, we express no resentment; we are not offended; nor do we suspect him for the future as one who is plotting against us. We are on our guard against him, it is true, but not as against an enemy or a suspected person. In all good humour we simply keep out of his way. Let us thus behave in other affairs of life, and overlook the many injuries which are done to us, as it were, by our antagonists in the gymnasium of the world. As I said, we may keep out of their way, but without suspicion or hatred.
⚫︎ その通り。
The best revenge is not to copy him that wronged you.
⚫︎ 諌めてくれる人を大事にしよう。
If any one can convince or shew me that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. It is truth that I seek; and truth never yet hurt any man. What does hurt is persistence in error or in ignorance.
⚫︎ 人としての器が違う、そう言ってるのかな。
He is a better wrestler than you, but not more public-spirited, more modest, or better prepared for the accidents of fate; not more gentle toward the short-comings of his neighbours.
⚫︎ 他人の過ちを指摘して正せるのであればすれば良い。変わらないなら何もしない方が良い。
If a man is going wrong, instruct him kindly, and shew him his mistake. If you are unable to do this, blame yourself or none.
⚫︎ 歴史は繰り返す。目新しい事など無い。諸行無常。
Continually reflect that all that is happening now happened exactly in the same way before; and reflect that the like will happen again. Place before your eyes all that you have ever known from your own experience or from ancient history; dramas and scenes, all similar; such as the whole court of Hadrianus, the whole court of Antoninus, the whole court of Philip, of Alexander, of Croesus. All these were similar, only the actors different.
それにしても、自身律する度合いが凄いですね。 どんだけハードルを上げるんだと。「雨ニモマケズ、風ニモマケズ」がずっと続いている感じです。
