From: Venantius Fortunatus, poet, in Poitiers
To: Gogo, chancellor, at the Austrasian court
Date: ~567 AD
Context: A verse letter asking the clouds to carry news of Gogo's health to the absent poet — a whimsical literary conceit.
O clouds that come blown by the swift North Wind,
O wheel that hangs spinning on the starry axis,
tell me in what health my dear Gogo lives,
what he is doing, where he is, how he fares.
For I cannot ask a letter to travel so fast —
letters go by roads, and roads are slow.
But you clouds travel by a higher road
and reach every place at once.
Tell him I think of him. Tell him that down here
in the quiet world of Poitiers and Tours,
in the modest company of bishops and monks and poets,
I keep looking north toward the Austrasian court
the way one looks toward a light in the distance.
And tell him to write. A letter takes longer than a cloud,
but it says more — or at least more of what I need to hear:
that he is well, that he remembers me, that when this season of distance ends
there will be a table somewhere at which we will sit again
and talk until the servants fall asleep.
Your friend across the miles,
Fortunatus
IV
Item ad eundem
Nubila quae rapido perflante Aquilone venitis,
pendula sidereo quae movet axe rota,
dicite qua vegitet carus mihi Gogo salute,
quid placidis rebus mente serenus agit:
si prope fluctivagi remoratur litora Rheni,
ut salmonis adeps rete trahatur aquis;
an super uviferi Mosellae obambulat amnem,
quo levis ardentem temperet aura diem,
pampinus et fluvius medios ubi mitigat aestus:
vitibus umbra rigens, fluctibus unda recens;
aut Mosa dulce sonans, quo grus ganta anser olorque est,
triplice merce ferax (alite pisce rate)
an tenet herbosis qua frangitur Axona ripis,
cuius aluntur aquis pascua prata seges?
Esera? Sara? Gares? Scaldis? Sate? Somena? Sura?
seu qui Mettis adit de sale nomen habens?
aut aestiva magis nemorum saltusque pererrans
cuspide, rete feras hinc ligat, inde necat?
Ardenna an Vosagus cervi caprae helicis uri
caede sagittifera silva fragore tonat?
seu validi bufali ferit inter cornua campum,
nec mortem differt ursus onager aper?
an sua rura colens exusta novalia sulcat
et rude cervici taurus aratra gemit?
sive palatina residet modo laetus in aula,
cui scola congrediens plaudit amore sequax?
an cum dulce Lupo pietatis iura retractant
consilioque pari mitia mella creant,
quo pascatur inops, viduae solacia praestent,
parvus tutorem sumat, egenus opem?
quidquid agunt, pariter felicia vota secundent,
et valeant Christi regis amore frui.
vos precor, o venti, qui curritis atque reditis,
pro Fortunato nuntia ferte suo.
◆
From:Venantius Fortunatus, poet, in Poitiers
To:Gogo, chancellor, at the Austrasian court
Date:~567 AD
Context:A verse letter asking the clouds to carry news of Gogo's health to the absent poet — a whimsical literary conceit.
O clouds that come blown by the swift North Wind, O wheel that hangs spinning on the starry axis, tell me in what health my dear Gogo lives, what he is doing, where he is, how he fares.
For I cannot ask a letter to travel so fast — letters go by roads, and roads are slow. But you clouds travel by a higher road and reach every place at once.
Tell him I think of him. Tell him that down here in the quiet world of Poitiers and Tours, in the modest company of bishops and monks and poets, I keep looking north toward the Austrasian court the way one looks toward a light in the distance.
And tell him to write. A letter takes longer than a cloud, but it says more — or at least more of what I need to hear: that he is well, that he remembers me, that when this season of distance ends there will be a table somewhere at which we will sit again and talk until the servants fall asleep.
Your friend across the miles, Fortunatus
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.