[One Thousand Characters a Day] Seneca, 'Comfort of the Philosopher' <1>

Editor's NoteAsia Economy provides daily 1,000-character transcription content for readers of the 'One Day, One Thousand Characters' newsletter. The transcription content is carefully selected according to themes on a daily and monthly basis, featuring Eastern and Western classics, Korean literature, notable columns, and famous speeches. This week, we introduce parts of by the ancient Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca in five installments. These letters, which comforted those who endured the death of family members or exile, advise us today?who suffer from trauma and anxiety?not to avoid or ignore pain but to confront and overcome it fiercely. Word count: 1,048 characters.

I have decided to fight your sorrow.

Also, I will stop the tears flowing from your tired and exhausted eyes?not, to be honest, tears of longing anymore, but tears that flow out of habit. If possible, I would gladly join you in accepting my prescription. But if that is impossible, even if you do not like it, even if you cling to and refuse to let go of the sorrow you have left in place of your son, I will fight that sorrow.

What about the end of that? Every attempt ended in vain. For example, the sweet consolations of friends and the authority of your great relatives have only become tiresome. Scholarship, even the scholarship inherited from your father, passed through your closed ears helplessly, offering comfort that was useful only for a fleeting moment. Even time, that natural remedy which lightens great pain, has lost its power within you.

Three years have already passed, but nothing has disappeared from the initial shock. Sorrow renews itself and grows stronger day by day, and now that long passage of time has created its own law, making it seem disgraceful to stop. Just as all vices take root deeply if not suppressed, this sorrow, pitiful and engulfed by madness, grows along with suffering and transforms into pain, a distorted pleasure of an unhappy mind.

So, if it were early, I would have approached it with such a remedy. At the emerging stage, even lighter medicine would have suppressed its power. But if it is old, it must be fought more fiercely.

It is easy to treat a wound if it does not bleed. But if inflammation worsens, it must be cauterized with fire, exposed deeply, and examined carefully by touch. Now, I cannot attack such long-standing pain with pleasant words or gentle methods. It must be shattered.

I know that those who try to advise someone always start with guidelines and end with examples. But sometimes it is useful to change this custom. Because different people require different approaches.

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca, translated by Lee Se-woon, (Minumsa, 15,000 KRW)