Letter 8010: Whence has returned to me a face with shining light?

From: Venantius Fortunatus, poet, in Poitiers To: Queen Radegund, at Holy Cross monastery, Poitiers Date: ~581 AD Context: A verse letter welcoming Radegund back after her period of stricter enclosure. Whence has returned to me a face with shining light? What delays kept you, who were absent so long, away? You took my joys with you when you left; you bring them back with you now. You fed me with your absence; you restore me with your return. I realize this sounds excessive, and perhaps it is. But here is the truth of it: when Radegund withdraws, the world is quieter and smaller. When she returns, it expands again. This is not a poetic exaggeration. It is an observation about what one particular person does to the quality of one's daily life. I have had patrons. I have had friends. I have had admirers. What I have in you is something harder to name: a person who takes me seriously without taking me too seriously, who listens to my poems with genuine attention and tells me honestly when they are not good enough, who has made this strange wandering life of mine in Gaul feel like something more than wandering. Welcome back. The violets will be coming soon.

X Ad eandem cum rediit Vnde mihi rediit radianti lumine vultus? quae nimis absentem te tenuere morae? abstuleras tecum, revocas mea gaudia tecum, paschalemque facis bis celebrare diem. quamvis incipiant modo surgere semina sulcis, hic egomet hodie te revidendo meto. colligo iam fruges, placidos conpono maniplos: quod solet Augustus mensis, Aprilis agit; et licet in primis modo gemma et pampinus exit, iam meus autumnus venit et uva simul. malus et alta pirus gratos modo fundit odores, sed cum flore novo iam mihi poma ferunt. quamvis nudus ager nullis ornetur aristis, omnia plena tamen te redeunte nitent.