Aelread of Rievaulx [St. Aelread]
1100-1167 AD
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Medieval Era)
CAPUT PRIMUM
[Chapter 1]
Libri hujus scribendi occasio
[The opportunity to write this book]
Cum adhuc puer essem in scholis,
[Even as I was a boy still in school,]
et sociorum meorum me gratia plurimum delectaret,
[and the popularity of my peers so very much delighted me,]
et inter mores et vitia quibus aetas illa periclitari solet,
[and among the customs and vices by which that age of one's life is accustomed to be endangered,]
totam se mea mens dedit affectui,
[my mind allowed itself to be totally affected,]
et devovit amori;
[and to roll along down to love;]
ita ut nihil mihi dulcius,
[So it happened that nothing could seem sweeter to me,]
nihil iucundius, nihil utilius quam amari et amare videretur.
[nothing could seem more pleasing, more useful than to love and be loved.]
Itaque inter diversos amores et amicitias fluctuans,
[And so, as it wavered among various love affairs and friendships,]
rapiebatur animus huc atque illuc:
[my mind was seized about here and there:]
et verae amicitiae legem ignorans,
[and because it was ignorant of the laws of true companionship,]
eius saepe similitudine fallebatur.
[it was often deceived by the pretense of it.]
Tandem aliquando mihi venit in manus,
[But at last, and eventually, it fell into my hands,]
liber ille quem De amicitia Tullius scripsit;
[I mean the book I speak of, the one that Cicero wrote about on friendship;]
