Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 1

Longum mihi commeatum dederat mala valitudo; repente me invasit. Quo genere? inquis. Prorsus merito interrogas; adeo nullum mihi ignotum est. Uni tamen morbo quasi adsignatus sum, quem quare Graeco nomine appellem nescio; satis enim apte dici suspirium potest. Brevis autem valde et procellae similis est impetus; intra horam fere desinit. Quis enim diu exspirat?

Mon mal m’avait laissé une longue trêve : tout à coup il m’a repris. « Quel genre de mal ? » vas-tu dire. Tu as bien raison de le demander, car il n’en est point qui ne me soit connu. Il en est un pourtant auquel je suis pour ainsi dire voué, et que je ne sais pourquoi j’appellerais de son nom grec, car notre mot suspirium (suffocation) le désigne assez juste. Au reste il dure fort peu : c’est une tempête, un assaut brusque : en une heure presque il a cessé.

My ill-health had allowed me a long furlough, when suddenly it resumed the attack. “What kind of ill-health?” you say. And you surely have a right to ask; for it is true that no kind is unknown to me. But I have been consigned, so to speak, to one special ailment. I do not know why I should call it by its Greek name; for it is well enough described as “shortness of breath.” Its attack is of very brief duration, like that of a squall at sea; it usually ends within an hour. Who indeed could breathe his last for long?