Letter 6010: I wait for you, my love, venerable Dynamius,

I wait for you, my love, venerable Dynamius, though you are absent — whom my care sees even so. I ask which winds carry you, where you are now; if you flee my eyes, you do not flee my heart. The pleasures of Marseille hold you, while Germania holds me: torn from your sight, I am still joined to you in spirit. Without you your own land must be a little empty for you, as this country of mines is empty without you in it. But letters cross the miles and carry the shape of a friend when the friend himself cannot come. Your last letter I read three times — once for the news, once for the pleasure of your phrasing, and once because I was not ready to stop hearing your voice. Come when you can. Or write, at least. Let me hear how Marseille treats you, what the sea looks like from your window, whether the wine of the south is still as remarkable as I remember from my last visit. Tell me everything. Distance is not a friend to friendship, but letters are a very reasonable substitute. Your Fortunatus

IX Ad Dynamium de Massilia Expecto te, noster amor, venerande Dynami, quamvis absentem quem mea cura videt. quae loca te teneant venientia flabra requiro; si fugias oculos, non fugis hinc animos. Massiliae tibi regna placent, Germania nobis: vulsus ab aspectu pectore iunctus ades. quo sine te tua pars hucusque oblita remansit nec revocas animo membra relicta tuo? si sopor obrepsit, tibi me vel somnia narrent. nam solet unianimes ipsa videre quies. si vigilas, fateor, veniam tibi culpa negabit; nil unde excuses desidiosus habes. altera signiferi revolutis mensibus anni solis anhelantes orbita lassat equos, cum mea discedens rapuisti lumina tecum, et modo nil sine te cerno patente die. vel mihi verba dares de fonte refusa loquaci, ut faceret tecum pagina missa loqui. sed tamen ut tandem venias huc carius hortor, et revocas oculis lumen, amice, meis.