Letter 8006: If the seasons were bringing me white lilies as usual

To Radegund — About Violets If the seasons were bringing me white lilies as usual, or if the rose were lovely with its sweet red blush, I would gather these from the countryside or from a poor man's garden and gladly send small gifts to one so great. But since the first flowers are lacking, I offer at least the second: he who brings vetches would bring roses, if he could, for love. Yet among the fragrant herbs I have sent, the purple violets hold a noble growth. They breathe alike, dyed in royal purple, and here their fragrance, there their beauty, fills the petals. Since these flowers bear both qualities equally, may you have both as well — and may the fragrance be your reward, the bloom your everlasting glory.

VI Ad eandem de violis Tempora si solito mihi candida lilia ferrent aut speciosa foret suave rubore rosa, haec ego rure legens aut caespite pauperis horti misissem magnis munera parva libens. sed quia prima mihi desunt, vel solvo secunda: profert qui vicias, ferret amore rosas. inter odoriferas tamen has quas misimus herbas purpureae violae nobile germen habent. respirant pariter regali murice tinctae et saturat foliis hinc odor, inde decor. hae quod utrumque gerunt pariter habeatis utraque, et sit mercis odor flore perenne decus.