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Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

Start date: May 3, 2018

Finish date: May 31, 2018

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Feb 19, 2021 Raymond rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: five-stars, arcs, 10books10decades

I have read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius three times. I read the Gregory Hays translation published in 2002 twice and then I recently finished the forthcoming 2021 translation by Robin Waterfield. Meditations is simply a 1,800 year old journal written by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, broken into 12 books or notebooks. The text consist of passages that are as short as one sentence or as long as several paragraphs, you don’t have to read the passages in sequential order. His purpose in writ I have read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius three times. I read the Gregory Hays translation published in 2002 twice and then I recently finished the forthcoming 2021 translation by Robin Waterfield. Meditations is simply a 1,800 year old journal written by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, broken into 12 books or notebooks. The text consist of passages that are as short as one sentence or as long as several paragraphs, you don’t have to read the passages in sequential order. His purpose in writing in his journal was to critically examine himself and his inner life. He used this journal as a form of self-analysis and self-improvement using Stoic philosophy. It was never meant to be published. Meditations focuses on four themes: 1. Anger Management, 2. Death, 3. Fame and how worthless it is, 4. and how to treat others. Aurelius’ writings on fame seemed to resonate with me in Waterfield’s translation, the death writings stuck out more when I read the Hays translation. Meditations is really good because even though you know Marcus was writing to himself sometimes it feels like he is writing directly to you.

As I’ve mentioned before, I have read a previous translation of this book (Hays). Because of this I decided to compare the Hays and Waterfield translations. I went through both versions and saw that I either highlighted or underlined 104 meditations or verses in the book as a whole. 55 highlights were exclusively in the Hays translation, 27 exclusively in the Waterfield translation, and 22 passages were highlighted in both translations. Based on numbers alone it would seem that the Hays translation was the best. However, its probably not a fair comparison since I’ve read Hays twice and Waterfield only once.

Next, I compared the highlighted passages in Waterfield to their counterparts in Hays. There are some passages that I liked better in Hays compared to Waterfield and vice versa. At some point in my review of the passages I came to the realization that Waterfield’s translation uses more modern words and phrases that may be relatable to everyday people. For example, Waterfield uses the term “high falutin” and “willy-nilly”. I’m not a classicist but I don’t think there is a Greek word that easily translates to those two terms. Hays’s translation sometimes comes across as if his words would make more sense to a Roman of Marcus’s day. Waterfield’s translation is also less abstract compared to Hays. Waterfield does not use the term logos, the Greek term for universal reason, providence, or God (there are a few mentions in the footnotes but not in Waterfield’s translation of Marcus’s words). Hays however used logos pretty frequently in his translation. To a new reader, Waterfield’s nonuse of the term logos may make his translation a little more readable.

Overall, Waterfield’s translation makes Meditations more personal and relatable. At the end of the day its hard to pick a favorite translation. I will always cherish the Hays’s translation because it was the first one I read and there are some passages that resonate with me strongly in his version. I would recommend Waterfield’s translation to those who are new to Aurelius and Stoicism because it is heavily annotated and the introduction by Waterfield gives a good overview of both Aurelius and the significance of his writings. Even though I did not read every annotation, I thought the footnotes were very illuminating. Either way this will certainly not be the last time I read Meditations. Waterfield has written an accessible translation of Marcus’s writings that I believe even non-philosophy people will enjoy.

Thanks to NetGalley, Basic Books, and Robin Waterfield for a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. This book will be released on April 6, 2021.

Review first published here: https://medium.com/ballasts-for-the-m... ...more

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Jun 20, 2015 Raymond rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: five-stars

Great book. Aurelius' reflections provides wisdom that can be applied in today's world.

11/14/20: I decided to read this a second time and it still holds up. ...more

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Oct 01, 2023 Candace rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Marcus Aurelius reigned as emperor of Rome A.D. 161-180. Much of his reign was shadowed by warfare and this is reflected in his opinions about life. Meditations is divided up into twelve books, each filled with Marcus's thoughts. Gregory Hays's translation is easy to understand, and his Introduction is very informative. Though Marcus Aurelius did not consider himself a philosopher, he did follow the Stoic philosophy. One of the three major Roman Stoics (alongside Seneca and Epictetus), Marcus se ...more

3 likes · Like · see review