§3.4.1Haec tibi non vanam portantia verba salutem §3.4.2Naso Tomitana mittit ab urbe tuus, §3.4.3utque suo faveas mandat, Rufine, Triumpho, §3.4.4in vestras venit si tamen ille manus.
Your Naso sends these words carrying no empty greeting to you from the Tomitan city, and commands, Rufinus, that you favor his "Triumph," if however it has come into your hands.
It is a small work and unequal to your preparations: whatever kind it is, however, I ask that you protect it.
§3.4.7firma valent per se, nullumque Machaona quaerunt.
Strong things are powerful by themselves, and seek no Machaon.
§3.4.8ad medicam dubius confugit aeger opem.
The doubtful sick person flees to medical help.
§3.4.9non opus est magnis placido lectore poetis: §3.4.10quamlibet invitum difficilemque tenent, §3.4.11nos, quibus ingenium longi minuere labores, §3.4.12aut etiam nullum forsitan ante fuit, §3.4.13viribus infirmi, vestro candore valemus: §3.4.14quem mihi si demas, omnia rapta putem.
Great poets have no need of a gentle reader: they hold the reader, however unwilling and difficult, we, whose talent long labors have diminished, or perhaps there was none even before, weak in strength, are strong by your kindness: which if you take away from me, I would think everything has been snatched away.
And though all my works rely on favorable support, that book has a special right to indulgence.
Other bards wrote of the triumph they witnessed; it is something to note down things seen with a mindful hand.
We wrote of things scarcely caught through the eager ear from the crowd, and rumor was my eyes.
Of course, similar feelings, or the same impulse, comes from things heard and things seen!
§3.4.23nec nitor argenti, quem vos vidistis, et auri §3.4.24quod mihi defuerit, purpuraque illa, queror: §3.4.25sed loca, sed gentes formatae mille figuris §3.4.26nutrissent carmen proeliaque ipsa meum, §3.4.27et regum vultus, certissima pignora mentis, §3.4.28iuvissent aliqua forsitan illud opus.
Nor do I complain because the splendor of silver and gold which you saw was lacking to me, and that purple: but the places, the peoples fashioned in a thousand shapes and the battles themselves would have nourished my song, and the faces of kings, the surest pledges of their mind, would perhaps have helped that work in some way.
§3.4.29plausibus ex ipsis populi laetoque favore §3.4.30ingenium quodvis incaluisse potest: §3.4.31tamque ego sumpsissem tali clamore vigorem, §3.4.32quam rudis audita miles ad arma tuba.
From the very applause of the people and their joyful favor any talent can warm up: and I would have taken strength from such a shout, just as a raw soldier runs to arms when the trumpet is heard.
§3.4.33pectora sint nobis nivibus glacieque licebit §3.4.34atque hoc, quem patior, frigidiora loco, §3.4.35illa ducis facies in curru stantis eburno §3.4.36excuteret frigus sensibus omne meis.
Though my heart be colder than snow and ice, and colder than this place which I suffer, that sight of the leader standing in his ivory chariot would shake off all cold from my senses.
Lacking these things, and having used doubtful authorities, I rightly come to the help of your favor.
Neither are the names of leaders known to me, nor are the names of places, my hands did not have the material.
§3.4.41pars quota de tantis rebus, quam fama referre §3.4.42aut aliquis nobis scribere posset, erat?
What small part of such great things was it, which rumor could report or someone could write to us?
Wherefore all the more, o reader, you ought to forgive, if anything has been erred or omitted there by me.
Add that my lyre, having constantly pondered the complaints of its master, has scarcely been turned to a joyful song.
§3.4.47vix bona post tanto quaerenti verba subibant, §3.4.48et gaudere aliquid res mihi visa nova est.
Scarcely did good words come to me when searching after so much grief, and to rejoice in anything seemed a new thing to me.
And as eyes dread the unaccustomed sun, so my mind was sluggish toward joy.
§3.4.51est quoque cunctarum novitas carissima rerum, §3.4.52gratiaque officio, quod mora tardat, §3.4.53abest, cetera certatim de magno scripta triumpho §3.4.54iam pridem populi suspicor ore legi.
Novelty is also the dearest of all things, and grace is absent from a tribute which delay makes slow; the other things written in rivalry about the great triumph I suspect have long since been read by the mouth of the people.
§3.4.55illa bibit sitiens lector, mea pocula plenus: §3.4.56illa recens pota est, nostra tepebit aqua.
The thirsty reader drinks those; he is full when he drinks my cups: those were drunk when fresh; our water will be lukewarm.
§3.4.57non ego cessavi, nec fecit inertia serum!
I have not been idle, nor did laziness make me late!
§3.4.58ultima me vasti sustinet ora freti.
The furthest shore of the vast sea holds me.