Letter 7002: How much is added to the burden of grief when affliction is interrupted — when adversity, to sting all the more...

Ennodius to Faustus. How much is added to the burden of grief when affliction is interrupted — when adversity, to sting all the more sharply, first flatters us with a change to prosperity! Has a heavier weight ever fallen on a man than the one that first relieved him of the load of continuous calamity? How well the long passage of time had fitted me to endure your absence, since happiness, lacking any grounds for hope, had taught me not even to presume upon my wishes! And now a fresh wound tears at me again out of pain grown old, and a sharper blow reopens a scar that had formed over. I had begged you as you departed for the mercy of compensating through letters what I was losing in your conversation — and this harvest, starving as I am for all I desire, I have not been granted. But I, not forgetting my own custom, compose these lines through my tears, in which I thought it best to report nothing more than my distress, trusting the account of the distinguished lord Pamfronius for the details. Now, my lord, deign to accept your servant's respects, and grant the customary remedies to a soul in anguish.

II. ENNODIVS FAVSTO. Quantum ad fascem maeroris adiungit interrupta tribulatio, quando ut acrius urat aduersitas, prosperorum mutatione blanditur! ad acrius umquam onus accessit, quod continuatae sarcinam calamitatis abiecit? quam bene me ad patientiam absentiae uestrae longus temporum usus aptauerat, dam hoc, quod felicitas non habebat, didicerant nec uota praesumere! ecce iterum de inueteratis doloribus passio nouella me lacerat, et obductam cicatricem rescindit ictus acutior. inploraueram a discedente misericordiam, ut quod de praesenti confabulatione perdebam, litteris pensaretur, nec hanc frugem omnibus desideriis ieiunus emerui. ego consuetudinis meae non neglegens inter lacrimas scripta concinno, quibus de adflictione mea credidi nil potius indicandum, inlustris uiri domni Pamfroni relatione contentus. nunc, mi domine, obsequia famuli uestri dignanter accipite et animae in angustiis constitutae remedia consueta praestate.