Letter 152: Longing makes Procopius dream while awake and ask for even a small sign.
Is this how you overlook those who long for you? Is this how you hold back the streams of your tongue? Longing sketches your face for me, and now I know what it is to dream while the body is awake. Give yourself to me at least through letters; for those who long, it is consolation to see even some small sign of the beloved. Remember those words too, in which there were promises either to come to me soon or to make absence unnoticeable by frequent letters. As it is, I am in danger of having you written up before the Muses as "wise Pancratius, formidable at saying what he did not intend to do."
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Παγκρατίωι Οὕτω παρορᾷς τοὺς ποθοῦντας; οὕτω τῆς γλώττης ἐπέχεις τὰ νάματα; ἀλλ' ἐμοὶ καὶ διαγράφει τὴν ὑμετέραν θέαν ὁ πόθος, καὶ νῦν ἔγνων ὀνειροπολεῖν ἐγρηγορότος τοῦ σώματος. ἀλλὰ δίδου σαυτὸν μέχρι γοῦν γραμμάτων ἡμῖν· τοῖς γὰρ ποθοῦσι παραμυθία τὸ καὶ σμικρόν τι σύμβολον τῶν ἐρωμένων ἰδεῖν. μέμνησο δὲ καὶ τῶν λόγων ἐκείνων, ἐν οἷς ὑποσχέσεις ἦσαν ἢ θᾶττον ἐλθεῖν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἢ γράμμασι πυκνοῖς ἀνεπαίσθητον τὴν ἀπουσίαν ποιεῖν. νυνὶ δὲ κινδυνεύω γράφεσθαί σε παρὰ ταῖς Μούσαις, ὡς ὁ σοφὸς Παγκράτιος δεινὸς ἦν λέγειν ἃ μὴ ποιεῖν ἐλογίζετο.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern procopius gaza batch9 matia greek v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.matia.gr/pisth/pdf/pg_migne/Procopius_of_Gaza_PG_87a-87c/Epistulae.pdf
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A taste of Pancratius's Muse makes Procopius imagine himself living in Alexandria with him.
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Fortune has denied the sight of Nestorius, but Nestorius has denied even syllables.
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