Letter 138: For lovers, spring is the beloved's voice after silence, not flowers or swallows.
So for those who long, spring is not a change of season, not bright weather, not swallows singing, not earth embroidered with flowers, but the voice of the beloved changing the winter of silence, which troubles the souls of lovers, into clear weather for the ear.
Such you have appeared, granting letters better than every pleasure. The winter that rode past came heavily on nature, but because you were silent it seemed harder still.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Δωροθέωι Ἦν ἄρα τοῖς ποθοῦσιν ἔαρ οὐ καιροῦ μεταβολὴ καὶ ὥρας λαμπρότης καὶ χελιδόνες ᾄδουσαι καὶ γῆ ποικιλλομένη τοῖς ἄνθεσιν, ἀλλὰ παιδικῶν φωνὴ χειμῶνα σιγῆς τῇ τῶν ἐρώντων ψυχῇ παρενοχλοῦντα πρὸς εὔδιον ἀκοὴν μεταβάλλουσα. τοιοῦτός τις πέφηνας κρείττω πάσης ἡδονῆς τὰ γράμματα χαρισάμενος. ὡς ὅ γε παριππεύσας χειμὼν ἐπῆλθε μὲν τῇ φύσει πολύς, σοῦ δὲ σιγῶντος ἔδοξε δυσχερέστερος.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern procopius gaza batch8 matia greek v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.matia.gr/pisth/pdf/pg_migne/Procopius_of_Gaza_PG_87a-87c/Epistulae.pdf
Related Letters
Procopius sends a literary answer to Dorotheus through another Dorotheus, son of Pelagius.
Procopius admires Dorotheus's zeal and hopes he wins the Muses while escaping slander.
Dorotheus's absence makes Procopius count the sailing days and mistake others for him.
Dorotheus's praise sends Procopius flying through fame until friendship's exaggeration becomes clear.
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