Jason Baker
The Hutchinson translation* of the Tetrapharmakos annoys me. Here are a handful of other English translations of Philodemus' version for contemplation:
God should not concern us.
Death is not to be feared.
What is good is easy to obtain.
What is bad is easily avoided. -Bob Lane
Not to be feared is god
Not to be felt is death
What is good is easily done
What is dire is easily borne. -Anon
God is not fearsome,
Death not frightening,
The good easily got,
The bad easily endured. -Tsouna
Not to be feared - god,
not to be viewed with apprehension - death,
the good - easily acquired,
the terrible - easily endured. -Gilleland (paraphrased)
God presents no fears,
death no worries,
while good is readily attainable,
evil is readily endurable. -Long and Sedley
*Don't fear god,
Don't worry about death;
What is good is easy to get,
What is terrible is easy to endure
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5You, Matt Jackson, Mish Taylor and 2 others
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Hiram Crespo the fourth one sounds like Yoda
Like · Reply · 3 · 9 hrs · Edited
Jason Baker The full translation he provided was
Not to be feared - God,
not to be viewed with apprehension - death,
on one hand, the good - easily acquired,
on the other hand, the terrible - easily endured.
I felt that was very unwieldy and novel, since <handedness> was not found in the original. I omitted it as unnecessary, and the Yoda-ness appealed.
Like · Reply · 4 hrs · Edited
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Mish Taylor I re read the 4th one in 'yoda voice' !
Like · Reply · 2 · 9 hrs
Matt Jackson God no.
Death no.
Good easy.
Bad easy.
The quick and terrible Jackson Translation.
Like · Reply · 2 · 8 hrs
Panos Alexiou I'm also not convinced about the general translation of 'ανύποπτον' as not frightening. It means more 'not perceivable' which also makes more sense.
Like · Reply · 2 · 8 hrs
Cassius Amicus Jason could you add the Hutchinson translation to the original post for comparison?
Like · Reply · 1 · 7 hrs
Cassius Amicus While I use the Tetrapharmakon often and I don't want to dwell on my reservations about it, I personally still find myself choking over the word "easy" or even "readily" in parts 3 and 4. So I like to remember that those words (easily / readily) are nowhere contained in the full length of PD3 and PD4 as attributed to Epicurus himself (and I don't think that Epicurus himself would have used the tone which comes across in English to summarize his meaning, which was probably already as terse as he could make it). But I also don't condemn the writer of the Tetrapharmakon for the seemingly harsh / cavalier result, as we have so little of the context in which the writer would have no doubt have explained fully what he meant.
Like · Reply · 5 · 7 hrs · Edited
Ilkka Vuoristo "You can only understand the four-fold cure if you understand the whole of the philosophy."
Unlike · Reply · 4 · 6 hrs