Letter 7002: Nectar, wine, food, clothing, learning, resources —

II To the same man, when he was inviting me to dinner Nectar, wine, food, clothing, learning, abundance - with your lavish gifts, Gogo, you are enough for me; you stand forth as a Cicero overflowing, you as our own Apicius [a famous gourmet and writer on cookery]: on this side you satisfy with words, and on that you feed with food. But for now grant me pardon: I am resting while the beef swells within me, for a quarrel of the belly arises if mixed meat sets up an uproar. Here, where the ox lies down, I think the chicken and the goose will flee: between horns and feathers the frenzy will not be evenly matched. And now already I close my eyes, drooping with sleep: for my slow songs attest that I am sleeping.

II Ad eundem cum me rogaret ad cenam Nectar vina cibus vestis doctrina facultas – muneribus largis tu mihi, Gogo, sat es; tu refluus Cicero, tu noster Apicius extas: hinc satias verbis, pascis et inde cibis. sed modo da veniam: bubla turgente quiesco, nam fit lis uteri, si caro mixta fremat. hic, ubi bos recubat, fugiet puto pullus et anser: cornibus et pinnis non furor aequus erit. et modo iam somno languentia lumina claudo: nam dormire meum carmina lenta probant.