The converse of indolence (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
idle talk
'the converse of indolence' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how they can define each other.
'converse of indolence' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'converse' could be 'talk' (I've seen this before) and 'talk' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'idle' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for idle talk that I've seen is " It's foolish to say".)