Letter 3018: Item ad eundem de opusculis suis

On His Literary Work — to Hilarius I have received the arduous poems you sent me by letter — words rounded in high-style verse. Running through the foaming songs in their swelling lines, I felt as though I were giving sails to a stormy sea. Your flat page poured out waves as of a stormy gale and released the waters as if from the source of the Ocean. Rome herself, venerable in Trajan's forum [the Forum of Trajan — Rome's grandest public space], could hardly now hear poems of such polished elegance. What if you had recited such work in the hearing of the Senate? They would have strewn golden threads at your feet; you would see your verses running through cities and crowds and crossroads everywhere, with popular acclaim. I did, however, note certain things in your lines — some borrowings from older poetry of which these new songs speak. Among them, in a few places an added syllable has broken the meter, and music limps, hurt in its own foot. But now, venerable father, I greet you with prayer, wish, and voice, commending my soul with a humble heart. May your life be long — you whose Muse compels us with our desired jests to give back verses.

XVIII Item ad eundem de opusculis suis Ardua suscepi missis epigrammata chartis atque cothurnato verba rotata sofo. percurrens tumido spumantia carmina versu credidi in undoso me dare vela freto: plana procellosos ructavit pagina fluctus et velut Oceanas fonte refudit aquas. vix modo tam nitido pomposa poemata cultu audit Traiano Roma verenda foro. quid si tale decus recitasses in aure senatus? stravissent plantis aurea fila tuis; per loca, per populos, per compita cuncta videres currere versiculos plebe favente tuos. sed tamen in vestro quaedam sermone notavi carmine de veteri furta novella loqui; ex quibus in paucis superaddita syllaba fregit et pede laesa suo musica cloda gemit. nunc, venerande pater, prece voto voce saluto, commendans animum supplice corde meum. sit tua vita diu, cuius modulante Camena cogimur optatis reddere verba iocis.