Lettres à Atticus Passage 3

tutius videbatur fore ibi ubi est quam apud publicanos. quod me hortaris ut firmo sim animo, vellem posses aliquid adferre quam ob rem id facere possem. sed si ad ceteras miserias accessit etiam id quod mihi Chrysippus dixit parari (tu nihil significasti) de domo, quis me miserior uno iam fuit? oro , obsecro, ignosce. non possum plura scribere. quanto maerore urgear profecto vides. quod si mihi commune cum ceteris esset qui videntur in eadem causa esse, minor mea culpa videretur et eo tolerabilior esset. nunc nihil est quod consoletur, nisi quid tu efficis, si modo etiam nunc effici potest ut ne qua singulari adficiar calamitate et iniuria.

It seemed safer where it is than in the hands of the tax farmers. You urge me to be stouthearted. I wish you could offer some reason why I might manage that. But if, in addition to my other miseries, the measure concerning my house that Chrysippus told me was being prepared, though you gave no indication of it, has also arisen, who has ever been more wretched than I alone now am? Please, I beg you, forgive me. I cannot write more. You surely see what grief oppresses me. If I shared it with the others who appear to support the same cause, my fault would seem less and therefore be more tolerable. As things stand, nothing can console me except whatever you may accomplish, if even now anything can be done to prevent my being afflicted by some disaster and injury peculiar to me.

Il paraissait plus sûr que cet argent demeurât où il est plutôt que chez les publicains. Tu m’exhortes à garder un cœur ferme; je voudrais que tu puisses m’apporter quelque raison de le faire. Mais si, à toutes mes autres misères, s’ajoute encore ce que Chrysippus m’a dit que l’on préparait au sujet de ma maison, chose dont tu ne m’as rien indiqué, quel homme fut jamais plus malheureux que moi? Je te prie, je te supplie, pardonne-moi. Je ne puis écrire davantage. Tu vois certainement quel chagrin m’accable. S’il m’était commun avec les autres qui paraissent appartenir au même parti, ma faute semblerait moindre et serait donc plus supportable. Maintenant, rien ne peut me consoler, sauf ce que tu parviendras à faire, s’il est encore possible d’empêcher que je sois seul frappé d’un malheur et d’une injustice particuliers.