A letter from Fortunatus (after 567)

Translated letter:

[Again about flowers] See the blessed delights, happy fellow-feaster, which the odor adorns before the savor tests [it]. The abundance of reddish flowers smiles gently; scarcely does a whole field have as many roses as the table now, where milky lilies are white with the purple hyacinths(?) and the place is eagerly fragrant with a new odor. The banquets leap, supported by dripping bud; what is usually with a napkin, why does the beautiful rose cover? The table pleased better without a cloth covering, which a soft odor shades with varied reward; the wall shone with hanging green clusters: where the boot goes, there the pressed rose is red. There is such a wealth of things that with the serene flower you would think soft meadows flourish under the roofs. If fleeting things please, which so swiftly recede when they fall, let your feasts invite us, paradise. The weaving of the sister shone with Daedalian hands; so worthy was the mother to have the adornment.

Original letter:

[Item aliud de floribus] Respice delicias, felix conviva, beatas, quas prius ornat odor quam probet ipse sapor. molliter adridet rutilantum copia florum ; vix tot campus habet quot modo mensa rosas, albent purpureis ubi lactea lilia blattis certatimque novo fragrat odore locus. insultant epulae stillanti germine fultae; quod mantile solet, cur rosa pulchra tegit? conplacuit melius sine textile tegmine mensa, munere quam vario suavis obumbrat odor; enituit paries viridi pendente corymbo: quae loca calcis habet, huc rosa pressa rubet. ubertas rerum tanta est, ut flore sereno mollia sub tectis prata virere putes. si fugitiva placent, quae tam cito lapsa recedunt, invitent epulae nos, paradise, tuae. Daedalicis manibus nituit textura sororis; tantum digna fuit mater habere decus.

Historical context:

Bishop Venantius Fortunatus met Agnes and her patron Radegund when he visited Poitiers. They became good friends and exchanged epistolary poems and small gifts until the women died.

Printed source:

Venanti Fortunati Opera Poetica, ed. Fridericus Leo (Berlin: Weidmann, 1881), 263, Librum XI, xi.

Date:

after 567