Letter 46: Brother Rufinus,

46. Paulinus to his brother Rufinus, greeting. Even brief letters from your loving heart are a great refreshment to us, just as in a scarcity of rains a thirsting field is revived by the dew; and so we confess that we were restored by your letter, brief though it was, yet your own, brought by the servant of our common sons; but then again we were troubled, because even now you have informed us that you are enduring Rome in the heat of anxiety and in the uncertainty of delays. May the Lord grant us to be made glad by the Lord as soon as possible concerning your affairs, so that, just as we suffer along with you in your anxieties, we may likewise rejoice together with you when you are cheered, and may at last begin to hope for the fruit of your presence, if you begin to be certain of your own purpose, or of the Lord's good pleasure regarding you. As for the fact that you deign to admonish me, with that affection by which you love us as you do yourself, that I should take up the study of Greek letters more attentively, I gladly receive it; but I am not able to fulfill it, unless perhaps the Lord should grant my desires, that I might enjoy your fellowship for a longer time. For how shall I be able to gain proficiency in an unknown tongue, if there is lacking one from whom I may learn the things I do not know? For I believe that, in the translation of holy Clement, besides the other failings of my talent, you have especially observed this poverty of my inexperience, namely that some passages, in which I was not able to understand or to express the words, I rendered rather according to a sense I had grasped, or, to speak more truly, a sense I had guessed at. By which I have all the more need of God's mercy, that He may grant me a fuller abundance of you, since it will be as good as riches for a poor man even to gather up the crumbs falling from the rich man's table with the eager mouth of a famished heart. Indeed, at the very time when these words were being written, there fell beneath my eyes, presenting itself in the appointed reading, that chapter from Genesis (a) in which Jacob blesses Judah. And because the Lord had given this most opportune occasion, it pleased me, after so long a time, to knock at the doors of your heart. Therefore, if you love me-nay rather, because you love me much-I ask that you write to me how you understand those very blessings of the patriarchs, and if you yourself know anything in them that is difficult in meaning and worthy of inquiry, that you would be willing for me to know it; but especially concerning that passage in which he says: binding his colt to the vine, and the foal of his she-ass to the haircloth-whose is that colt, and what she-ass, or which is the foal of the she-ass? And why is his own colt bound to the vine, but the foal of the she-ass to the haircloth?

XXXXVI. PAVLINVS RVFINO FRATRI SALVTEM. Vel breues nobis ab unanimitate tua litterae magno refrigerio sunt, sicuti in paenuria pluuiarum ager sitiens rore recreatur, unde refectos nos quamuis breui epistula tua, attamen tua, per puerum communium filiorum fatemur, sed tamen rursus adfectos, quia etiam nunc uos in aestu sollicitudinis et incerto morarum Romam pati indicastis. det nobis dominus a domino laetificari quam primum de actu uestro, ut sicut anxiis conpatimur, ita congaudeamus hilaratis et incipiamus tamen sperare fructum praesentiae uestrae, si uos certi esse de uestra sententia uel domini circa uos placito coeperitis. Sane, quod admonere dignaris affectu illo, quo nos sicut te diligis, ut studium in Graecas litteras adtentius sumam, libenter accipio; sed inplere non ualeo, nisi forte desideriis meis adnuat dominus, ut diutius consortio tuo perfruar. nam quomodo profectum capere potero sermonis ignoti, si desit a quo ignorata condiscam? credo enim in translatione sancti Clementis praeter alias ingenii mei defectiones hanc te potissimum imperitiae meae paenuriam considerasse, quod aliqua, in quibus intellegere uel exprimere uerba non potui, sensu 1 rescrita C peterit (et om.) Y sexta C 2 an CY, uel tC Rosw . 3 huius (modi om.) CY testimonium Y imo f eplc epif sci paulini ad scffi aug C, explicit Y . S,. — 9 uel 8, ut f breuis 8 unianimitate 8 10 fluuiorum Bosto . 11 pr . tua om. cdd. Ruf adtamen 8 13 etiam nunc SE, etiamnum nunc Bosw . solicitudinis, 14 pati E, peti SRosto . iudicastis Rosw . 15 nostro RoStV . 16 hilaritati Rosw . 19 admoneri E 21 desideria mea adiuuat Rosw . 25* potius adprehensa uel, ut uerius dicam, opinata transtulerim. quo magis egeo misericordia dei, ut pleniorem mihi copiam tui tribuat, quia pro diuitiis erit pauperi uel micas a diuitis mensa cadentes auido famelici cordis ore colligere. In tempore sane, quo scripta haec scribebantur, cecidit sub oculis incidens proposita lectione capitulum illud ex Genesi, (a) Iacob quo ludas benedicitur. et quia dominus oportunissimam hanc occasionem dederat, pulsare post tempus fores cordis tui placuit. ergo si me amas, immo quia multum amas, rogo ut scribas mihi, ut intellegis ipsas patriarcharum benedictiones et si qua ipse scis in eis ardua sensu et digna cognitione, scire me uelis; specialiter tamen de capitulo illo in quo ait: alligans ad uitem pullum suum et ad cilicium pullum asinae suae, qui suus sit pullus quaeue asina uel qui asinae pullus? et cur suus ad uitem, asinae uero pullus ad cilicium alligetur?