To Magnulf, Brother of Lupus
How quickly fame flies, stirred on its swift wings, and fills every place with the acts it has multiplied! For while the Rhine is near you and the Loire is near me, here, Magnulf [brother of Duke Lupus], you please as worthy and great in your honor. Thus the trumpet of Sigismund's herald ran out, so that your good qualities are known in the country all around.
What the letter can barely mark in brief words is not because it sings of everything — nor does it wish to be silent about anything. Rightly I say: in your goodness you have given so much to all, that even the few words that reach me have made you known as great.
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Ad Magnulfum fratrem Lupi
Quam cito fama volat pernicibus excita pinnis
et loca cuncta suis actibus aucta replet!
nam tibi cum Rhenus, mihi sit Liger ecce propinquus,
hic, Magnulfe, decens, magnus honore places.
sic tuba praeconis Sigimundi missa cucurrit,
ut tua diffuso sint bona nota loco.
quod tamen in brevibus vix signat epistula verbis:
non quia cuncta canit, nec reticere cupit.
iuredico in primis pollens torrente relatu
sic regis, ut revoces facta vetusta novis,
cuius in officiis aequi cultoris aratro
semine iustitiae plebs sua vota metit.
nemo caret propriis, alienis nemo recumbit:
sic facis ut populum non vacet esse reum.
sollicitudo tua reliquis fert dona salutis,
et labor unius fit populosa quies.
aequalis concors ut ab omnibus, alme, voceris,
legibus hinc iudex, hinc bonitate parens.
da paucis veniam, quoniam mihi portitor instat:
nam de fratre Lupi res monet ampla loqui.
sic tribuat dominus, meritis reparetis ut illum,
quem pariter tecum cordis amore colo.
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To Magnulf, Brother of Lupus
How quickly fame flies, stirred on its swift wings, and fills every place with the acts it has multiplied! For while the Rhine is near you and the Loire is near me, here, Magnulf [brother of Duke Lupus], you please as worthy and great in your honor. Thus the trumpet of Sigismund's herald ran out, so that your good qualities are known in the country all around.
What the letter can barely mark in brief words is not because it sings of everything — nor does it wish to be silent about anything. Rightly I say: in your goodness you have given so much to all, that even the few words that reach me have made you known as great.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.