When I chanced the other day upon a poem by the 2nd-century AD Roman poet
Juvenal and which starts with the famous "mens sana in corpore sano," it clicked
instantly. I wonder if Bruce Lee had read this before he summed up "Do not pray
for an easy life; pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."
The following was copied shamelessly from Wikipedia:
> orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.
> fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem,
> qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat
> naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores,
> nesciat irasci, cupiat nihil et potiores
> Herculis aerumnas credat saevosque labores
> et venere et cenis et pluma Sardanapalli.
> monstro quod ipse tibi possis dare; semita certe
> tranquillae per virtutem patet unica vitae.
You should pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.
Ask for a stout heart that has no fear of death,
and deems length of days the least of Nature's gifts
that can endure any kind of toil,
that knows neither wrath nor desire and thinks
the woes and hard labors of Hercules better than
the loves and banquets and downy cushions of Sardanapalus.
What I commend to you, you can give to yourself;
For assuredly, the only road to a life of peace is virtue.
Note that tranqulity ("peace" seems a poor translation of "tranqullae") through
virtue was also the belief expressed by the Stoic Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius,
of the same era.
Older people pay more attention to health, I suspect, because we fear death. Yet
the poem advocates health for its own sake and belittles longevity as "the least
of Nature's gifts," which does make sense as, given the choice, one would prefer
good life quality to prolonged suffering. But maybe I'm assuming too much as
some would argue for living for the sake of living.
Below I try to translate the English version into Chinese, but I might need to
know the Latin version better to be more accurate.
你应该祈求的是一个健康的头脑和健康的身体。
祈求一颗坚强的心，它
不畏死亡，
视寿命为天赐礼物中最轻的，
能够承担各种艰辛，
既不知道发怒也没有贪欲，
笃信Hercules的苦力远胜Sardanapalus的享乐。
我向你推荐的，你可以自行获取；
我保证，美德是通向心灵平静的唯一道路。
