1How is Comum, your delight and mine? 1How is that most charming villa near the town, how is that colonnade where it is always spring, how is the deeply shaded plane-grove, how is the canal, green and sparkling like a gem, how is the lake that lies below and serves it, how is that drive, soft and yet firm, how is that bath which the sun floods and encircles in full measure, how are those dining-rooms, some for crowds, some for a few, how are the bedrooms for day and night? 1Do they possess you and share you out by turns? 2Or, as you used to, are you called away by frequent excursions, intent on attending to your estate?
2If they possess you, you are happy and blessed; 2if not, you are 'one of many'. 3Why do you not (for it is time) hand over these low and mean cares to others, and claim yourself for your studies in that deep and fruitful retreat of yours? 3Let this be your business, this your leisure; 3this your labour, this your rest; 3let your waking, let even your sleep be devoted to these. 4Shape something and hammer it out, which may be yours for ever. 4For the rest of your possessions will fall to one master after another when you are gone; this will never cease to be yours, once it has begun to be.
5I know what spirit, what talent I am urging on; 5only strive to be worth as much to yourself as you will seem to others if you are worth it to yourself. 5Farewell.