Hays, Long, Hard: three Meditations compared

Every translation is a set of losses chosen deliberately. The useful question is never which translation is best, but which losses you can afford given why you are reading.

Take II.11, one sentence and the most quoted line in the book.

Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.

Three solutions

Hays gives you the shock and drops the imperative grammar. Long pays for his fidelity in archaism that reads as ceremony where the Greek is blunt, and loses a third of the sentence on the way: Marcus governs what you do, say, and think, and Long leaves you acts and thoughts. Hard splits the difference, keeps the triad and the governing verb, and ends up slightly less memorable than either.

Which one to read

Read Hays first, then check him against Long when a line seems too good. The lines that are too good are usually Hays. That is not a complaint: it is the trade he made, and for a first reading it is the right one.