That you are not placed in our books, my friend, is caused by the condition of your name.
§4.12.3ast ego non alium prius hoc dignarer honore— §4.12.4est aliquis nostrum si modo carmen honor.
But I would deem no other worthy of this honor before you— if only my song is any honor to us.
§4.12.5lex pedis officio fortunaque nominis obstat, §4.12.6quaque meos adeas est via nulla modos, §4.12.7nam pudet in geminos ita nomen scindere versus, §4.12.8desinat ut prior hoc incipiatque minor.
The law of the foot and the misfortune of the name stand in the way of my duty, and there is no way by which you may enter my meters, for I am ashamed to split your name thus into two verses, so that the former ends with this and the shorter begins with it.
§4.12.9et pudeat.
And it would be shameful.
Si te, qua syllaba parte moratur, §4.12.10artius adpellem Tuticanumque vocem.
If I should call you more tightly in that part where the syllable lingers, and call you Tuticanus.
§4.12.11nec potes in versum Tuticani more venire, §4.12.12fiat ut e longa syllaba prima brevis, §4.12.13aut producatur, quae nunc correptius exit, §4.12.14et sit porrecta longa secunda mora.
Nor can you come into verse in the manner of Tuticanus, so that the first syllable becomes short from being long, or that which now ends more shortly be lengthened, and the second duration be extended long.
If I should dare to corrupt your name with these faults, I would be laughed at and deservedly said to have no mind.
§4.12.17haec mihi causa fuit dilati muneris huius, §4.12.18quod meus adiecto faenore reddet amor, §4.12.19teque canam quacumque nota, tibi carmina mittam, §4.12.20paene mihi puero cognite paene puer, §4.12.21perque tot annorum seriem, quot habemus uterque, §4.12.22non mihi, quam fratri frater, amate minus.
This was my cause for this delayed gift, which my love will repay with added interest, and I will sing of you by whatever mark, I will send poems to you, known to me when I was almost a boy, you being almost a boy, and through the series of so many years, as many as we both have, loved by me no less than a brother by a brother.
§4.12.23tu bonus hortator, tu duxque comesque fuisti, §4.12.24eum regerem tenera frena novella manu.
You were a good encourager, you were both leader and companion, when I was ruling the new reins with my tender hand.
§4.12.25saepe ego correxi sub te censore libellos, §4.12.26saepe tibi admonitu facta litura meo est, §4.12.27dignam Maeoniis Phaeacida condere chartis §4.12.28cum te Pieriae perdocuere deae.
Often I corrected my books under you as a censor, often a erasure was made for you by my advice, when the Pierian goddesses thoroughly taught you to compose a Phaeacis worthy of Maeonian papers.
§4.12.29hic tenor, haec viridi concordia coepta iuventa §4.12.30venit ad albentis inlabefacta comas.
This course, this harmony begun in green youth has come unimpaired to our whitening hair.
§4.12.31quae nisi te moveant, duro tibi pectora ferro §4.12.32esse vel invicto clausa adamante putem, §4.12.33sed prius huic desint et bellum et frigora terrae, §4.12.34invisus nobis quae duo Pontus habet, §4.12.35et tepidus Boreas et sit praefrigidus Auster, §4.12.36et possit fatum mollius esse meum, §4.12.37quam tua sint lasso praecordia dura sodali.
Unless these things move you, I would think that your heart is closed with hard iron or invincible adamant, but first let both war and the cold of the land be lacking to this place, which two things Pontus, hated by us, possesses, and let the North Wind be warm and the South Wind be freezing cold, and let my fate be able to be gentler, before your heart is hard toward your weary comrade.
§4.12.38hic cumulus nostris absit abestque malis.
Let this accumulation be absent and is absent from our misfortunes.
§4.12.39tu modo per superos, quorum certissimus ille est, §4.12.40quo tuus assidue principe crevit honor, §4.12.41effice constanti profugum pietate tuendo, §4.12.42ne sperata meam deserat aura ratem, §4.12.43quid mandem, quaeris? peream, nisi dicere vix est;
You, only by the gods above, of whom that one is most certain, under whom as prince your honor has continually grown, bring it about by protecting the exile with constant devotion, lest the hoped-for breeze desert my raft, What should I entrust to you, do you ask?
§4.12.44si modo, qui periit, ille perire potest.
May I perish, if it is not scarcely possible to speak; if only he who has perished can perish.
§4.12.45nec quid agam invenio, nec quid nolimve velimve, §4.12.46nec satis utilitas est mihi nota mea.
Neither do I find what I should do, nor what I want or do not want, nor is my own advantage sufficiently known to me.
§4.12.47crede mihi, miseros prudentia prima relinquit, §4.12.48et sensus cum re consiliumque fugit, §4.12.49ipse, precor, quaeras, qua sim tibi parte iuvandus, §4.12.50quoque viam facias ad mea vota vado.
Believe me, first wisdom leaves the wretched, and sense and counsel flee along with their circumstances, You yourself, I pray, seek out in what part I must be helped by you, and by what shallows you may make a way to my prayers.