A letter from Fortunatus (after 567)

Translated letter:

The concrete-hard, thick frost stiffens the ice everywhere and the pliant grass does not raise its afflicted hairs, the encrusted earth lies beneath its hard shell, the soft and high snow almost covers the hairs of the trees. The streaming rivers have built an encrusted wall and the thickened wave wears a heavy skin. Waters are constrained by their mass, clear water has bound itself, it scarcely offers a road for itself under its barrier. A crystalline bank is born from the rivers' midst, we do not want to go under it, the road does not go over it. The ice has swollen more bitterly from the raging north wind: to whom will the water give a path if it fights against itself? But if the spirit of warmth is now conceived, which in the beginning was carried on the waters, if you bend the almighty with assiduous prayers, (and) you give me a better outcome as you desire. If only it were possible to obey you in whatever is ordered to the spirit as it pleases me to wish to!

Original letter:

Passim stricta riget glacies concreta pruina nec levat adflictas flexilis herba comas. terra iacet crustata gelu sub cortice duro, mollis et arboreas nix tegit alta comas. proflua crustatum struxerunt flumina murum et densata gravem vestiit unda cutem. mole sua frenantur aquae, se lympha ligavit, obice sub proprio vix sibi praebet iter. fluminibus mediis nata est crystallina ripa, nec cupimus subter, nec super itur iter. asperius tumuit glacies Aquilone fremente: cui dabit illa viam quae sibi pugnat aqua? sed si concipitur nunc spiritus ille caloris, qui tum in principio perferebatur aquis, assiduis precibus si flectitis omnipotentem, et mihi, ceu cupitis, prosperiora datis. nam vobis parere animo quodcumque iubetur posse utinam sic sit quam mihi velle placet!

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. The direct address at the end of the poem is in the second person plural (vos), which means either its intended audience is more than one, or Fortunatus is using a formal address to one person, not named but perhaps Radegund. Judith George, who translates this poem in her Venantius Fortunatus: Personal and Political Poems (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995), 109-10, suggests that the poem expresses in a nature metaphor a misunderstanding between Fortunatus and Radegund that he is having trouble resolving.

Printed source:

Venanti Fortunati Opera Poetica, ed. Fridericus Leo (Berlin: Weidmann, 1881), 269-70, Appendix, xxvi.

Date:

after 567