Letter 7003: Whatever complaints the page just sent me contained,

Venantius FortunatusGogo|c. 582 AD|Venantius Fortunatus
friendship

Whatever complaints the page just sent me contained,
I declare myself innocent of any fault toward you.
For the cause, I maintain, your own presence harmed it more:
I am blamed for the offense in which you yourselves sinned.
Yet from such a charge, sweetness will not perish:
the fruit of friendship endures in a heart that tends it.

AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

III
Item ad eundem
Quas mihi porrexit modo pagina missa querellas,
inmunem culpae me loquor esse tuae
nam causam, remus, tua plus praesentia laesit :
quo vos peccastis crimine culpor ego.
non tamen ex tali titulo dulcedo peribit:
fructus amicitiae corde colente manet.

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