Letter 11025: Ad easdem de itinere suo

25 To the same [nuns] concerning his journey By countless mischances the fortunes of men are spun about, and with unsteady step our pendant life moves on. The very mind, anxious and faltering before things to come, knows not what the coming day may bring forth for it. For when I had departed from you, Eomundus, our friend, received me with that kindness which is his custom. Hurrying on swiftly from here, I am carried down to the hall of Cariacum; thence I am borne to the place of Tincillacum. From here the holy bishop Domitianus carried me off, drawing me to the festal joys of Saint Albinus. Released from there, weary through many dangers, beneath a tiny boat the wave and the rain drive me on, where the heavy North Wind, bearing down, had overturned the river and the surge raised up its ill-curved hollows; nor did its own shores contain the agitated waves: the flooding waters invade new lands. The pastures, the fields, the grove, the crops, the wayfaring-tree, the willow-bed, one plundering force, with raging strength, holds fast. While I was committed here, amid the broken roarings of the sea, with horrifying blasts the loosened storm bellowed, and the stern of the boat rose and fell along the watery summits, climbing the liquid roads with a wandering mountain; so that, with the craft hung aloft, the sailor at one moment touched the clouds, and then, the gulf being drawn away, returned again to the fields. With the waves hostile, in the foaming tempest of the deep, the prow ceaselessly drank in the rushing waters; the seas, hostile in their peace, licked the keel, more grievously about to harm us by their very embrace. But no delay forbids me to recall my various laments: things to be told together hereafter, I keep hidden in my heart. May the divine power grant me this above all, that I may swiftly look upon you again in happiness.

XXV Ad easdem de itinere suo Casibus innumeris hominum momenta rotantur instabilique gradu pendula vita meat. ipsa futurarum titubans mens anxia rerum Ventura ignorat quid sibi lux pariat. nam me digressum a vobis Eomundus amator illa suscepit qua bonitate solet. hinc citus excurrens Cariacae devehor aulae; Tincillacensi perferor inde loco. hinc sacer antistes rapuit me Domitianus, ad sancti Albini gaudia festa trahens. inde relaxatus, per plura pericula fessum puppe sub exigua fluctus et imber agit, quo gravis incumbens Aquilo subverterat amnem et male curvatos extulit unda sinus; nec sua commotos capiebant litora fluctus: invadunt terras aequora fusa novas. pascua rura nemus segetes vibuma salictum viribus iratis una rapina tenet. huc mihi commisso per confraga murmura ponti flatibus horrificis laxa fremebat hiems surgebatque cadens per aquosa cacumina puppis, ascendens liquidas monte vagante vias; quo rate suspensa modo nubila nauta tenebat, gurgite subducto rursus ad arva redit. fluctibus infestis pelagi spumante procella assidue rapidas prora bibebat aquas; aequora lambebant inimica pace carinam, tristius amplexu nos nocitura suo. sed mora nulla vetat varias memorare querellas: post referenda simul murmura corde tego. hoc mihi praecipue divina potentia praestet, ut cito felices vos revidere queam.