Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 2

Mihi tamen necessarium erat concutere corpus, ut sive bilis insederat faucibus, discuteretur, sive ipse ex aliqua causa spiritus densior erat, extenuaret illum iactatio, quam profuisse mihi sensi. Ideo diutius vehi perseveravi invitante ipso litore, quod inter Cumas et Servili Vatiae villam curvatur et hinc mari, illinc lacu velut angustum iter cluditur. Erat enim a recenti tempestate spissum. Fluctus autem illud, ut scis, frequens et concitatus exaequat, longior tranquillitas solvit, cum harenis, quae umore alligantur, sucus abscessit.

Au surplus j’avais besoin de me secouer un peu, soit pour dissiper les glaires fixées dans mon gosier, soit pour débarrasser ma respiration gênée par quelque autre cause, et j’ai senti que la litière me faisait du bien. J’ai donc voulu prolonger une promenade à laquelle m’invitait ce beau rivage qui, entre Cumes et la campagne de Servilius Vatia, forme un coude resserré comme une étroite chaussée, d’une part par la mer, de l’autre par le lac. Une récente tempête avait raffermi la grève. Là, comme tu sais, la lame fréquente et impétueuse aplanit le chemin, qui s’affaisse après un long calme, l’humidité qui lie les sables venant à disparaître.

Nevertheless, I found it necessary to give my body a shaking up, in order that the bile which had gathered in my throat, if that was my trouble, might be shaken out, or, if the very breath within me had become, for some reason, too thick, that the jolting, which I have felt was a good thing for me, might make it thinner. So I insisted on being carried longer than usual, along an attractive beach, which bends between Cumae and Servilius Vatia’s country-house, shut in by the sea on one side and the lake on the other, just like a narrow path. It was packed firm under foot, because of a recent storm; since, as you know, the waves, when they beat upon the beach hard and fast, level it out; but a continuous period of fair weather loosens it, when the sand, which is kept firm by the water, loses its moisture.