Horace, Epistles 1.8

Celso gaudere et bene rem gerere Albinovano
Musa rogata refer, comiti scribaeque Neronis.
si quaeret quid agam, dic multa et pulchra minantem
vivere nec recte nec suaviter; haud quia grando
contuderit vitis oleamque momorderit aestus,
nec quia longinquis armentum aegrotet in agris;
sed quia mente minus validus quam corpore toto
nil audire velim, nil discere, quod levet aegrum;
fidis offendar medicis, irascar amicis,
cur me funesto properent arcere veterno;
quae nocuere sequar, fugiam quae profore credam;
Romae Tibur amem ventosus, Tibure Romam.
post haec, ut valeat, quo pacto rem gerat et se,
ut placeat iuveni percontare, utque cohorti.
si dicet ‘recte’, primum gaudere, subinde
praeceptum auriculis hoc instillare memento:
“ut tu fortunam, sic nos te, Celse, feremus.”

To Celsus Albinovanus bear greetings and good wishes,
Muse, at my request, the companion and secretary of Nero.
If he asks how I am, tell him that, though promising many fine things,
my life is neither good nor pleasant. Not because hail
has flattened my vines and heat gnawed at my olives,
nor because my herd is sickening in distant pastures,
but because, healthy in body but less so in mind,
I won’t listen to anything, or learn anything, to relieve my sickness,
I quarrel with well-meaning doctors, and get angry with friends
when they try to rescue me from this fatal listlessness;
because I choose what does me harm, avoid what I think will help me,
love Tivoli when I’m in Rome, Rome when in Tivoli, as flighty as a breeze.
Next ask after his health, how he’s faring, how he conducts himself,
how he is getting on with the prince and his staff.
If he says, “Well”, first be sure to express your delight, then straight after
to drip this piece of advice in the dear chap’s ears:
“As you bear your good fortune, so will we, Celsus, bear you.”