Letter 350: Your annoyance is over. Let this be the beginning of my letter. Go on mocking and abusing me and mine, whether laughing or in earnest.
Your annoyance is over. Let that be the beginning of my letter. Go ahead -- mock me and my people, whether in jest or in earnest. Why bother talking about frost or snow when you could be enjoying yourself at our expense?
For my part, Libanius, to give you a good laugh, I have written this letter wrapped in a snow-white veil. When you take it in your hand, you will feel how cold it is, and how perfectly it captures the condition of its sender -- imprisoned at home, unable to put his head out of doors.
My house is a tomb until spring arrives and brings us back from death to life, granting us once more, like plants, the simple gift of being alive.
Human translation - New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Latin / Greek Original
[Πρός: Βασίλειος Λιβανίῳ]
Λέλυταί σοι τὸ δύσθυμον. τοῦτο γὰρ ἔστω τῆς ἐπιστολῆς τὸ προοίμιον. σὺ δὲ σκῶπτε καὶ διάσυρε τὰ ἡμέτερα, εἴτε γελῶν εἴτε σπουδάζων. τί δὲ χιόνος ἢ γριτῆς ἐμνημόνευσας, παρὸν ἐντρυφᾷν ἡμῶν τοῖς σκώμμασιν; ἐγὼ δέ, ὦ Λιβάνιε, ἵνα σοι καὶ πλατὺν κινήσω τὸν γέλωτα, ὑπὸ παραπετάσματι καλυπτόμενος χιόνος, τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἔγραψα, ἣν δεξάμενος ψαύων χερσί, γνώσῃ ὡς κρυερά τις αὐτὴ καὶ τὸν πέμψαντα χαρακτηρίζει ἐμφωλεύοντα, καὶ μὴ δυνάμενον ἔξω τῶν δωματίων προκύπτειν. τάφους γὰρ τοὺς οἴκους κεκτήμεθα, μέχρις ἐπιλάβοι τὸ ἔαρ καὶ νεκροὺς ἡμᾶς ὄντας πρὸς ζωὴν ἐπανάξῃ, πάλιν τὸ εἶναι, ὥσπερ φυτοῖς, χαριζόμενον.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from New Advent / NPNF.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit/blob/master/data/tlg2040/tlg004/tlg2040.tlg004.perseus-grc2.xml
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