A letter from Fortunatus (after 567)

Translated letter:

Sweet, rich, handsome, whose care to labor is such, that a great cornfield may come from a small seed, who now willingly fatigue your members with time fleeing, when perpetual quiet will be given by Christ. [skillful] where you sweating no doubt prepare food for the sisters, wet here with waves and flames, thence warm: with assiduous desires I am rolled in your arms and your burden bruises my spirit. Now you run back making fires and cooking meals and I, lazy, can not help the mother. But the daughter, present, carries every burden in turn and by participating makes the weight light. May the redeemer of the world give help to you both and may you cherish this wealth for a long time equally.

Original letter:

Dulcis opima decens, cui tanta est cura laboris, ut tibi sit modico semine magna seges, quae modo membra libens fugitivo tempore lassas, cum Christo dabitur perpetuanda quies. [dextra] ubi nempe paras sudando sororibus escas, undis et flammis hinc riget, inde calet: assiduis votis inter tua brachia volvor atque meos animos sarcina vestra terit. nunc faciendo focos epulasque coquendo recurris, nec valeo matrem quippe iuvare piger. filia sed portet praesens onus omne vicissim et reddat pondus participando leve. det tibi auxilium mundi reparator utrisque atque diu pariter hanc foveatis opem.

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), 289, Appendix, xxviii.

Date:

after 567