The Marcus Aurelius Problem & Solution
Odd, as this is originally drawn from stoic material, but The Marcus Aurelius Problem & Solution?
I live in between two large “big box bookstores.” Not a preference, but not bad, either. The last remaining major conglomeration of publishing and retail in a single operation. With an attached coffee shop, such as it is.
I was in one store, shopping because a particular title caught my attention, but when I handled the book itself, it was easy to see that the title and topic didn’t quite align. Next stop, after shopping through the remaindered aisles, stationary and writer tools, then I meandered to the philosophy, picking up a copy of Marcus Aurelius. I already have a copy, I think, in that translation, sort of a New-Age(y) version. There’s a classical translation, several “recent” but then, checking the copyright dates? Maybe not that recent, but there were a few.
I look up a single passage across three different editions, put them all back and headed out without making purchase.
My original version was the thin Penguin Classic, yellowed and frayed pages, and price tag from the old New Age Books on South Lamar (old Austin). My second copy is a Loeb Classics, then there’s that new age version that I carried for years, and my copy is beat to crap, pages not yet falling out, but notations stretching two decades. So that’s three hard copies, two paperback, one hardback, three different translations, and the Loeb Classics includes the original Greek, on opposing pages. Cool, if almost useless for me.
So that’s three copies that are paper, words printed on paper.
Now, I also have, and the one I’ve been using the last few years the most, a digital version that is similar to Loeb Classic in that it has the dual Greek/English texts. It was cheap, at the time, digital imprint of — I think — of the Loeb Classics publishers. However, the author is listed as different, and the texts don’t line up perfectly.
Then, too, there’s the link at the bottom, the free version I host, a public domain copy from probably the 1800s, but I’m not sure, I grabbed a copy off of Gutenberg.org to use as a my own internal research, and sometimes the translations are different, being from a different times.
Those heady Victorians can be wordy.
It was the moment of indecision, and then, pausing before I bought another reference manual, another translation of something I’ve already got, and instead of purchasing a new copy, I thought it all the way through. I have three copies in various printed formats. I also have at least two digital that I use as much, if not more, than the original book formats. Kind of a toss up, though, as to which I use most frequently, There is that motion that handling a text with its yellowed pages, and margin notes from 2006? That matters to me.
Marcus Aurelius (meditations)
A free copy of Marcus Aurelius Meditationsis available here.
