A letter from Fortunatus (after 567)

Translated letter:

Yesterday so took the hours from me that I lament not to have gotten [to hear] the mother's voice: as the loving lamb driven from its mother's udder wanders the grassy fields sad and anxious now it flees to the fields striking the air with its bleeting, now it comes back to the sheepfold, which pleases not without the mother, so, I suggest, I am, absent from your words? scarcely now does one house hold [me] with the place closed off. But I give thanks here to the gentle and dear [sister], that she cared for me from the wealth of her piety. You retain one half, she possesses me, the other half: when I see the two/twins, then I am complete. Now I pray Martin and Hilary be present to you, dear one, and god cover you and your children, one hope.

Original letter:

Sic hesterna dies totas mihi transtulit horas, ut matris vocem non meruisse querar: qualiter agnus amans genetricis ab ubere pulsus tristis et herbosis anxius errat agris (nunc fugit ad campos feriens balatibus auras, nunc redit ad caulas, nec sine matre placent), sic me de vestris absentem suggero verbis; vix tenet incluso nunc domus una loco. sed refero hinc grates placidae caraeque [sorori], quod me consuluit de pietatis ope. tu retines medium, medium me possidet illa: cum geminas video, tunc ego totus ago. nunc tibi, cara, precor Martinus, Hilarius adstent, et te vel natos spes tegat una deus.

Historical context:

Bishop Venantius Fortunatus met Radegund and Agnes, whom Radegund had had installed as her abbess, when he visited Poitiers. They became good friends and exchanged epistolary poems and small gifts until the women died. After her death, Fortunatus wrote a life of Radegund emphasizing her ascetic qualities.

Printed source:

Venanti Fortunati Opera Poetica, ed. Fridericus Leo (Berlin: Weidmann, 1881), 286, Appendix, xxi.

Date:

after 567