¹ Receive, I ask you,
This little gift of small verses,
Meager but heartfelt,
And frequently, I ask,
Return to me
The mutual obligation
Of kindness.

² For just as parched fields
Delight in rain
When the south wind blows,
So too your letters
Have often refreshed
Our weary spirits.

³ I do not now seek
The gifts of perishable wealth,
Nor the gold that the greedy
Always desire,
Accumulating it in need.
For gold blinds
The wisdom of the wise
And, like a raging flame,
Consumes impure hearts.

⁴ Often, the dreadful desire for gold
Provokes many heinous crimes.
To illustrate, I will recount a few
Ancient examples:
The golden fleece was
A great source of strife.

⁵ Through the small gift of gold,
The feast of the gods fell apart.
A great quarrel arose
Among three goddesses,
And because of it,
The wealth of the Trojans
Was laid waste
By the Greek youths.

⁶ Laws, justice, and faith
Are broken by gold.
Indeed, we read
Of the impious deeds
Of King Pygmalion,
Who acted unjustly for gold.
Thus also Polydorus
Was treacherously murdered
By his host,
Driven by greed for gold.

⁷ A woman often loses
Her chastity for gold.
It was not Jupiter’s
Golden rain that poured,
But rather the bribe of an adulterer
That was called gold.

⁸ The golden rain
Is a mere fable.
The treacherous wife
Betrayed Amphiaraus for gold.
The hero Hector’s body
Was sold for gold,
And the black gates of Pluto
Are said to open
For certain payments.

⁹ I could recount more,
But brevity forbids me.
These, my illustrious brother,
Are small gifts of words
That I send to you,
And I urge you to abandon
Vain cares.

¹⁰ Do not now, I beg you,
Fatten spirited horses
On rich fodder.
Do not accumulate
Wealth upon wealth,
Nor coins upon coins.

¹¹ Why do you associate
With those whose frequent gifts
You receive?
Christ hates
The gifts of the unrighteous.
These things must be
Avoided by the wise,
For the wise ought to perceive
That the fleeting and perishable
Times of life
Are passing away.

¹² It is sufficient to have sung
These words now
In a talkative verse.
Perhaps this form of verse
Will seem new to you
As you read it.

¹³ But indeed,
The famous poetess of the Greeks,
By the name of Sappho,
Used to sweetly sing
In such verses.
If you wish,
With care and will,
To compose poetry
In such a meter,
Let every line begin
With a dactyl
In proper order,
Followed by a trochee
In the next part,
And often close
With two long syllables
At the end.

¹⁴ Now, dearest brother Fidolius,
Sweeter than nectar,
Leaving aside
More florid verses,
Accept joyfully
These humble works of mine.

¹⁵ May Christ,
Judge of the world,
The only Son
Of the omnipotent Father,
Grant you the sweet joys
Of eternal life.
He who governs all things
Without end,
Reigns forever
In the name of the Father.

¹⁶ I wrote this to you, oppressed by severe illnesses,
Which I suffer in my frail body
And sorrowful old age.
For now, as time rushes
On its swift course,
I have reached the seventy-second year.

¹⁷ All things pass away;
Irrecoverable time flees.
Live joyfully, farewell,
And remember the sorrows of old age.