pull down to refresh
Fascinating. They emphasized the bi-bilingualism in the introduction to the book, as well. Where did you pick up the Greek passage?
The Google translation is even poetic. I'm assuming a human translator coming to the material with a Stoic perspective in mind used "shame" specifically for a reason, though. It would be interesting to know if anyone else currently reading another translation has it differently.
Very glad you posted this. The importance of accurate translation
reply
Interestingly Meditations was written in Greek and not Latin like one may assume (the educated wrote in Greek and as a added bonus it probably helped keep in meditations private from prying eyes of household staff).
In Greek, I think the passage is:
Μὴ τιμήσῃς ποτὲ ὡς συμφέρον σεαυτοῦ, ὃ ἀναγκάσει σέ ποτε τὴν πίστιν παραβῆναι, τὴν αἰδῶ ἐγκαταλιπεῖν, μισῆσαί τινα, ὑποπτεῦσαι, καταράσασθαι, ὑποκρίνασθαι, ἐπιθυμῆσαί τινος τοίχων καὶ παραπετασμάτων δεομένου.
Now I don't speak Greek much less Ancient Greek, however running this thru Google Translate yields:
Do not honor anything as self-interest, which forces you to violate your faith, to abandon it, to hate it, to suspect it, to be cursed, to be hypocritical, to desire the walls and curtains of a given place.
So I'm not sure if the word "shame" was used?? Hard to know since I'm copy-pasting ancient greek into google translate (which I probably only modern greek)