Lettres à Atticus Passage 1

magna mihi varietas voluntatis et dissimilitudo opinionis ac iudici Quinti fratris mei demonstrata est ex litteris tuis in quibus ad me epistularum illius exempla misisti. qua ex re et molestia sum tanta adfectus, quantam mihi meus amor summus erga utrumque vestrum adferre debuit, et admiratione quidnam accidisset quod adferret Quinto fratri meo aut offensionem tam gravem aut commutationem tantam voluntatis. atque illud a me iam ante intellegebatur, quod te quoque ipsum discedentem a nobis suspicari videbam, subesse nescio quid opinionis incommodae sauciumque esse eius animum et insedisse quasdam odiosas suspiciones. quibus ego mederi cum cuperem antea saepe et vehementius etiam post sortitionem provinciae, nec tantum intellegebam ei esse offensionis quantum litterae tuae declararant nec tantum proficiebam quantum volebam.

Your letter, in which you sent me copies of my brother Quintus's letters, has shown me a great change of feeling and divergence of opinion and judgment in him. This caused me as much distress as my very great love for you both was bound to cause, as well as amazement at what had happened to bring either so grave an offense or so great a change of feeling to my brother Quintus. I had already understood what I saw that you yourself suspected when leaving me: that some unfavorable opinion lay beneath the surface, that his mind was wounded, and that certain hateful suspicions had settled in it. Although I often wished to heal these before, and still more earnestly after the allocation of his province, I neither understood that his offense was as great as your letter revealed nor achieved as much as I wished.

Les copies des lettres de mon frère Quintus que tu m’as envoyées dans la tienne m’ont révélé chez lui une grande variation des sentiments et une profonde différence d’opinion et de jugement. J’en ai éprouvé autant de peine que devait m’en causer mon affection extrême pour vous deux, et je me suis demandé avec étonnement ce qui avait pu susciter chez mon frère Quintus une offense si grave ou un si grand changement de volonté. J’avais déjà compris ce que je te voyais toi-même soupçonner en nous quittant: je ne sais quelle opinion défavorable se cachait dessous, son esprit était blessé et certains soupçons odieux s’y étaient fixés. Désireux d’y porter remède, souvent auparavant et avec plus de force encore après le tirage au sort de sa province, je ne comprenais ni que son offense fût aussi vive que tes lettres l’ont révélé, ni que mes efforts eussent aussi peu d’effet que je l’aurais voulu.