Letter 153
Synesius of Cyrene→Pylaemenes|c. 409 AD|synesius cyrene
imperial politics
To Pylaemenes.
A letter arrives from you once a year, as though the seasons themselves deliver it. And this fruit is perhaps sweeter to me than anything the circling months and the farmers bring forth. But once a year is not enough. Write more often. If you knew how much your letters mean to a man stranded in Libya with no philosophical companionship, you would write every day.
Letter 153: A Polite Reproach
[1] To Pylaemenes
A letter comes to us from you every year, as though the seasons themselves brought it with them, and this fruit is perchance sweeter to me than that which the circling months and the husbandmen bring to maturity. [2] You would do me an injustice if you deprived me of the joy I find in this. Change your mind, then, and send me, this year at least, an abundance of letters.
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To Pylaemenes.
A letter arrives from you once a year, as though the seasons themselves deliver it. And this fruit is perhaps sweeter to me than anything the circling months and the farmers bring forth. But once a year is not enough. Write more often. If you knew how much your letters mean to a man stranded in Libya with no philosophical companionship, you would write every day.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.