He Plants His Trees to Serve a Race to Come: From On Old Age

But, to pass over these sublime studies, I can name some rustic Romans from the Sabine district, neighbours and friends of my own, without whose presence farm work of importance is scarcely ever performed—whether sowing, or harvesting or storing crops. And yet in other things this is less surprising; for no one is so old as to think that he may not live a year. But they bestow their labour on what they know does not affect them in any case:

不过，这些高深的学问暂且不谈，我可以举出萨宾地区的几位罗马乡下人，他们是我的邻居和朋友；凡是重要的农活——无论播种、收割还是贮藏庄稼——几乎都少不了他们在场。不过在别的事情上，这还不那么令人惊奇，因为没有人老到认为自己活不过一年；可他们却把辛劳花在明知与自己毫无关系的事情上：

as our poet Statius says in his Comrades. Nor indeed would a farmer, however old, hesitate to answer any one who asked him for whom he was planting: "For the immortal gods, whose will it was that I should not merely receive these things from my ancestors, but should also hand them on to the next generation."

正如我们的诗人斯塔提乌斯在《同伴》中所说。的确，一个农夫无论多老，如果有人问他为谁种树，他都会毫不犹豫地回答：“为了不朽的众神。他们的意愿是：我不仅要从祖先那里接受这些东西，还要把它们传给下一代。”