Salvete, dilectissimi amici. Translationem anglice confessionum Aurelii Augustinii dabo. Quaeso, me corrigete si erravi.
Itaque vidi et manifestatum est mihi, quia omnia bona quoniam non aequalia omnia fecisti, ideo sunt omnia, quia singula bona sunt et simul omnia valde bona, quoniam fecit deus noster omnia bona valde.
St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessiones VII, 12
And so I saw and it was revealed to me, because all things are good, since you have not made all things equal. For this reason, all things are, because each thing is good and simultaneously very good, since our God made all things very good.
Pardon the English. I actually got this from a quote of the text, not the text itself. Turns out it is a combination of two parts in that same passage. No wonder that selection seemed so weird.
Sorry, that was naughty of me. And now nonsensical, since you’ve corrected the eror.
Thanks to bedwere’s first link to the passage, you realize that in what you quoted there’s text missing after quia omnia bona. It picks up again at quoniam non aequalia, which I take as meaning “(And) since you didn’t make all things equal, for that reason all things, because they are good individually, are also at the same time all (i.e. collectively) very good, …”. The note helps. On this reading the et before simul is not “and” as you have it but “also,” and the text would be clearer with a comma after quia singula bona sunt. Hopefully bedwere will correct me si erravi. You apparently take “sunt omnia” existentially. That gives good grammar but I don’t know about the sense.
(The omission in bedwere’s 2nd link must surely be inadvertent.)
mhw, gratias maximas tibi ago! An editorial comma would have helped immensely. Sometimes I wished that they would put no commas in the works and let me figure it out. The editorial punctuation so shapes my thinking.
By the way, to the fans of holy bishop I recommend the 1972 Italian movie Augustine of Hippo. Director Roberto Rossellini, despite his ideology and complicated personal life, made several movies of this kind. My only objection is to the representation of the liturgy, where Rossellini must have been led astray by his clerical consultants into showing a celebration “versus popolum”. However, St. Augustine always ends his homilies with “conversi ad Dominum”. Moreover, archaeological evidence shows that the churches of North Africa and elsewhere were built ad orientem.
Anyway, English subtitles in srt format can be found on line.
Can’t go wrong with Rossellini, I enjoyed his Socrates immensely. But while we’re on additional materials for Augustine’s Confessions, I’m going to recommend our own (?) Bedwere’s recordings. They’re available on librivox and archive.org. They’re very good recordings, the voice is now Augustine in my head and it’s how I got the confessions down while doing things here and there while listening.
erravi?
into showing a celebration “versus popolum”. However, St. Augustine always ends his homilies with “conversi ad Dominum”. Moreover, archaeological evidence shows that the churches of North Africa and elsewhere were built ad orientem.