Letter 6011: You have envied me, O seasons, my headlong love,

10 Likewise to Dynamius You seasons begrudged us our headlong love, you who forbade the duty of our vow to be carried out through lyric measures and through strings made eloquent by the plectrum, where upon the cithara Erato [the muse of lyric poetry] struck the ivory sweetly. Behold, the thirsting Dog Star thrusts forth its vapor-bearing constellation, and the heat pants across the gaping fields. Here, fearing infection, lest I be struck by any fire, I bear arms bound up after the blood has been let. From where the gore slips down, the hand is held fast by the knot, and the opened vein binds my harmless right hand. So that the thirst of a strong love may burn me without any tempering, this grievous cause has stood in the way of my vows. I do not know how the treatment, once undergone, may profit me: yet it harms me from this, that it makes me keep silent. If I were permitted to write with my fingers, that would have been enough: now my first care is for you, my second for myself. From eagerness I am drawn back from my pursuits, the wave of the Muse [Camena] falls silent: from my flesh runs the gore, lest the moisture grow stiff in my mouth. The musical fire is absent, the sisters [the Muses] grow cold at the spring; for the blood freezes the waters here whence it makes them flow. If I should compose any poems to be recited, warm with feeling, you yourself know how labor weighs down this pursuit by its art. For the blood that has been drawn away rather requires slow leisure, where neither cold gapes open nor scorching heat plows; and it seeks seclusion, lest a gusting breeze lash it, where, restoring the spirit, greenery stands and fragrance breathes. But I set my own serious concerns after your affection: care for you holds my face, for my own holds my back. After the sweat I had only just now been about to give my limbs to rest: with their order set aside, love breaks into those hours. I count my own well-being as little, while I wish to bear a greeting to you, but I look out for my own when I tend your vows. Now receive these small things, you shrewd and powerful Dynamius of the twofold balance, illustrious in your own grace, dear in my favor, you whom the Rhine and the Hister [the Danube] sang of to me, carried to the regions of Italy, before the place itself granted it: distinguished in appearance, lofty in household, sagacious in law, equal to all men in hope, wit, peace, and faith. From this it befell me, I confess, by the lot of seeing you, a warmth beneath the icy region of the North, and more gladly do I, wholly, boil over toward those features of yours than a foreign company boils over at the returns to its homeland; and I would have gone to the sight of you more swiftly than, if to a father's embraces, the son born of Telamon [i.e. Ajax, son of Telamon]. Scarcely even does the rustic so eager furrow the soil skillfully with its varied winding, or the sailor the sea with his stern. From that time, you worthy of celebration, my part stands as your client with you, and a half-portion of my soul comes here, known to me in my heart before seen with my eye; whom I bind close with my mind, though I touch you not with my hand; I who do not yet chain my arms around your neck, that which the fingers cannot do, love binds fast. Being farther absent from there, yet there I reach what I desire: where I do not come on foot, I go wholly with my breast. Though the Arar [the Saone] and the Rhone stand in our way, we swim by love, nor does he who forbids the step to go forbid the spirit to go. - I have also read the verses sent under another's name, in which, as if through a mirror, the image gives back the man. From the spring of the Muses you are scattered to the square-set world; to places you do not know you are led by the waters of your mouth. Hence too you withdraw from us in no way to be blotted out, since, fixed in your writings, you are known to be. Penetrating the inner parts of my little field, you its possessor, forever happy, sweet friend, farewell. Looking upon the resource of your mouth and wishing for the better things of your star, that the address may run, may a long well-being stand for you. To the holy ones - to Theodorus, foremost in household, to Sapaudus, to the excellent Felix, whom the world's honor gave, to the distinguished Albinus, to Helias and to renowned Jovinus - render the work of greeting on behalf of Fortunatus. These things our lyre tunes for you in simple song: but from there let the lyre thunder forth in the wisdom of its archetype.

X Item ad Dynamium Tempora, praecipiti vos invidistis amori, officium voti quae vetuistis agi per lyricos modulos et fila loquacia plectris, qua citharis Erato dulce relidit ebur. ecce vaporiferum sitiens canis exerit astrum et per hiulcatos fervor anhelat agros. hinc metuens saniem, ne quo iacularer ab igne, sanguine laxato brachia nexa gero. labitur unde cruor, nodo manus inde tenetur et dextram innocuam vena soluta ligat. ut sine temperie validi sitis urat amoris, causa meis votis obstitit ista gravis. nescio quam prosit ratio perfuncta medellae: me tamen inde nocet quod reticere facit. scribere si digitis sinerer, satis illa fuisset: nunc mihi prima tui cura, secunda mei. ex studio studiis retrahor, silet unda Camenae: carne fluit sanies, ne riget ore latex. musicus ignis abest, algent in fonte sorores. nam sanguis latices hinc gelat unde rigat. si qua calens animo recitanda poemata pangam, scis ipse hoc studium quam gravet arte labor. nam cruor ablatus magis otia lenta requirit, quo neque frigus hiat nec vapor ustus arat; secretumque petit, neu flabilis aura flagellet, quo recreans animum stat viror, halat odor. ast ego posthabeo affectu mea seria vestro: cura tui faciem, nam mea terga tenet. post sudorem habui modo nam dare membra quieti: ordine postposito tempora rumpit amor. duco parum propriam, tibi dum volo ferre salutem, sed mea prospicio, cum tua vota colo. nimc cape parva, cate et pollens duilance Dynami, clare decore tuo, care favore meo, partibus Italiae advecto mihi Rhenus et Hister quem cecinere prius quam daret ipse locus, insignem specie, celsum lare, lege sagacem, omnibus aequalem spe sale pace fide. incidit unde mihi, fateor, te sorte videndi Arctoi gelida sub regione calor, plusque libens vultus efferveo totus in illos, ad patriae reditus quam peregrina cohors; visibus atque tuis issem velocius, ac si ad patris amplexus de Telamone satus. vix quoque tam cupidus vario sinuamine sulcat rusticus arte solum, navita aplustre fretum. ex illo, celebrande, cliens stat pars mea tecum, et venis huc animae pars mediata meae, antea corde mihi notus quam lumine visus. quem mente adstringo, si neque tango manu; brachia qui nec dum circum tua colla cateno, quod digiti nequeunt, alligat illud amor. longius inde absens ibi sed pertingo quod opto: quo pede non venio, pectore totus eo. nos licet obstet Arar Rhodanusque, natamus amore, nec vetat ire animum qui vetat ire gradum. – Legi etiam missos alieno nomine versus, quo quasi per speculum reddit imago virum. fonte Camenali quadrato spargeris orbi, ad loca quae nescis duceris oris aquis. hinc quoque non aliquo nobis abolende recedis, quo fixus scriptis nosceris esse tuis. interiora mei penetrans possessor agelli, felix perpetue, dulcis amice, vale. spectans oris opem melioraque sideris optans, currat ut affatus, stet tibi longa salus. sacris Theodoro primo lare sede, Sapaudo Felici egregio, quem dedit orbis honor, Albino eximio, Heliae claroque Iovino pro Fortunato redde salutis opus. haec tibi nostra chelys modulatur simplice cantu: sed tonet archetypo barbitus inde sopho.