罗马人塞涅卡

来自西班牙的男孩

The Boy from Spain

在基督降生前几年，卢修斯·阿奈乌斯·塞涅卡出生于西班牙南部的科尔多瓦城。他的父亲是一位著名的演说家老师，家庭富有而且受人尊敬。这个男孩身体瘦弱，经常生病，但他的脑子很聪明。

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was born in Corduba, a city in the south of Spain, a few years before the birth of Christ. His father was a famous teacher of public speaking, and the family was rich and respected. The boy was thin and sickly, but his mind was quick.

城里最好的老师都教过他。他太热爱学习了，几乎把自己的身体都搞坏了。他很少吃饭，睡不好觉，整夜整夜地看书。他的父亲很担心，就让他跟着叔叔去埃及，在那里靠海休养。塞涅卡一生都瘦弱且气短，但他一生都在化劣势为优势：他学会了保持耐心，在别人停下脚步时继续向前。

He had the best teachers in the city, and he loved learning so much that he almost ruined his health with it. He barely ate, slept badly and read all night. His father worried and sent him to Egypt with his uncle, where he rested by the sea. All his life he was thin and short of breath, and all his life he made his weakness work for him: he learned to be patient, and to keep going when others stopped.

小的时候，他的姑姑带他去了罗马。在那里，他在书本、律师和雄心壮志中长大。他主要学习两件事：如何把话说好，以及如何把生活过好。第一件事让他出了名，而第二件事花了他一生的时间。

When he was small, his aunt took him to Rome. There he grew up among books, lawyers and ambition. He studied two things: how to speak well, and how to live well. The first made him famous. The second took him his whole life.

年轻时，他病得很重，甚至想过结束自己的生命。他的父亲苦苦哀求他不要这么做。塞涅卡后来写道：“家人的爱让我活了下来。从那时起，我信任自己的头脑，而不是身体。”

As a young man he became so ill that he thought about ending his own life. His father begged him not to. Seneca wrote later: “The love of my family kept me alive, and from that time I trusted my mind, and not my health.”