“I follow you who first could raise so clear a light

to illuminate in so great a darkness the best parts of life,

the glory of the Greek people; and I place my feet

firmly in the signs you left behind

not for the sake of competition but because of love

I long to imitate you: for how could a swallow compete

with swans or who would think that a kid could match

his shaking limbs in a race with a mighty horse?

You, father, are the investigator of nature, and you give us

a father’s precepts drawn from your papers, famous man,

just as bees live off of everything in the flowery groves

so too we subsist on all your golden words

always most worthy of a life everlasting.”

E tenebris tantis tam clarum extollere lumen

qui primus potuisti inlustrans commoda vitae,

te sequor, o Graiae gentis decus, inque tuis nunc

ficta pedum pono pressis vestigia signis,

non ita certandi cupidus quam propter amorem

quod te imitari aveo; quid enim contendat hirundo

cycnis, aut quid nam tremulis facere artubus haedi

consimile in cursu possint et fortis equi vis?

tu, pater, es rerum inventor, tu patria nobis

suppeditas praecepta, tuisque ex, inclute, chartis,

floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant,

omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea dicta,

aurea, perpetua semper dignissima vita.

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