Letter 7017: Ad Gunduarium
To Gunduarius
If a lover's affection could be fully expressed in words, our page would give you many more verses. But since I cannot speak by mouth what I close up in my heart, let it be enough that at least a few are given from the many.
For if you look at my desires through the singer's words, I would have preferred to give you more — I who bring you small things. We see your feeling poured out whole in sweetness, where serene hearts shine cloudless without deceit. Pouring from a pure spring, nectar overflows from your throat — a most pleasant honey wells up abundantly in you.
All that is good you hold gathered: you are a vessel of outstanding virtue. Whatever merit of goodness is to be found anywhere, that entire weight rests in your heart. You need no outside mirror to show you your soul — your mind is its own clear looking glass.
Stay as you are, Gunduarius — and may the years not diminish what they find in you.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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