Letter 7025: Ad Galactorium comitem

25 To Count Galactorius Often had I wished to become a sailor at the oar, so that the boat might go upon the wave-shattering waters in its course, or that I might be borne by rushing winds along the back of the Garonne, making for the Bordeaux road in swift passage, and that the sails, with a favorable north wind, might draw me as I wandered over the flood. The breeze, too, would return me to the shore of that bay where the bishop Gundegisilus the more abundantly offers the holy rites, he whose altar shines forth on the height for the people of God: and there too where you reside by your merits, my generous Count, dear Galactorius, my diligent care, to whom the excellent king Guntram, by right, still owes greater honors, he who has given you great ones already. Yet though I wished for this, that fear stood in the way amid the surging tides, the fear that roars in a white mountain with the mass of the rushing water. The sweetness of civic society invites me and the wave opposes: thus on this side love calls, and on that side dread forbids. Clearly let even a running letter discharge what remains: let the written page render in love the exchange of what I would have done. Most of all, then, sweet friend, I now greet you, hoping that, by the Lord's grace, you may long survive. And together with your household, your companions, the bishop, your wife, and your children, live on, Count, you to whom belong the rights of a leader to be governed. May I be commended, bountiful one, to the high priest [the bishop] by your prayer, so that your portion may be granted at the right hand among the deserving in heaven. If there remains anything that perchance the tributes may yield in surplus: I, who now send these lines, ask you to send pitch.

XXV Ad Galactorium comitem Saepius optaram fieri me remige nauta, cursibus undifragis ut ratis iret aquis flatibus aut rapidis per dorsa Garonnica ferrer, Burdigalense petens ut celer actus iter, velaque fluctivagum traherent Aquilone secundo. me quoque litoreo redderet aura sinu qua plus antistes sacra Gundegisilus offert, culmine pro populi qui micat ara dei: tu quoque quo resides meritis, comes, ample serenis, care Galactori, sedula cura mihi, cui rite excellens rex Gunthechramnus honores maius adhuc debet, qui tibi magna dedit. cum tamen hoc vellem, timor obstitit aestibus ille qui cumulo rapidae mons fremit albus aquae. dulcedo invitat civilis et unda repugnat: sic vocat atque vetat hinc amor, inde pavor. plane hoc quod superest solvat vel epistula currens: littera, quod facerem, reddat amore vicem. maxime nunc igitur te, dulcis amice, saluto, sperans a domino te superesse diu. cumque domo sociis antistite coniuge natis vive comes, cui sint iura regenda ducis. pontifici summo commender, opime, precatu, sic tua pars meritis sit data dextra polis. si superest aliquid quod forte tributa redundent: qui modo mitto apices, te rogo mitte pices.