A letter from Fortunatus (after 567)

Translated letter:

[Again] Although what I might desire flees from me in the evening, yet this night did not take you from me completely: though not with the eyes, lovers are discerned by the spirit; for where the form is not, there our mind was/is. How that pious place which never severs lovers, where they seize with the eyes whom their desires seek with the prince of goodness, Christ, placed in their midst, by whose sacred love hearts remain bound! But here also songs ordered through many years: you might take this with you, where I might speak worthy things to you.

Original letter:

[Item aliud] Quamvis quod cuperem fugit me vespere facto, te mihi non totam nox tulit ista tamen: etsi non oculis, animo cernuntur amantes; nam quo forma nequit, mens ibi nostra fuit. quam locus ille pius qui numquam abrumpit amantes, quo capiunt oculis quos sua vota petunt in medio posito bonitatis principe Christo, cuius amore sacro corda ligata manent! hic quoque sed plures carmina iussa per annos: hinc rapias tecum, quo tibi digna loquar.

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), 284, Appendix xvi.

Date:

after 567