30:1
Nuper cum officia culmini vestro semper debita pro apostolicæ festivitatis consuetudine destinavi, non minus civilitate pretioso, quam declamatione conspicuo sermone dixistis, idcirco vos tardius dedisse rescriptum, ut humilitas sui conscia quae a scribendi audacia jure temperat, eo diutius ariditatis supplicia penderet, quo fontem splendidum vestri alloquii plus sitiret. Vindictæ, sicut dignamini scribere, genus esse censentes, ut portitor a me segnius destinatus vobiscum diutius moraretur. 0 retributio ultionis blandissimæ! o sententia crudelitatis optandae! Quis scilicet tam intolerabilem poenam aequanimiter ferat, ut paradiso vestri conspectus inclusus mora beatiore vos videat?
Lately, when according to the custom of the apostolic festival I dispatched to your eminence the offices ever due, you replied in a discourse no less precious in courtesy than conspicuous in declamation, saying that you had for this reason given your rescript the more slowly, that my humility, conscious of itself—which rightly refrains from the boldness of writing—might the longer pay the penalties of its dryness, the more it thirsted for the splendid fountain of your address. Judging it, as you deign to write, a kind of revenge that the bearer, dispatched by me too slowly, should tarry the longer with you. O most caressing recompense of vengeance! O sentence of a cruelty to be wished for! Who indeed could bear so intolerable a punishment with equanimity, as to see you, shut up in the paradise of your presence, with a more blessed delay?
近來，我照使徒節慶的慣例，向你們的崇高獻上素來當盡的禮數，你們卻以一篇言辭作答——其禮貌之寶貴，不亞於其雄辯之出眾——說你們之所以更遲才賜下回覆，乃是要使我這自知其分的卑微（它理當節制寫作的膽量），越渴慕你們言談那璀璨的泉源，就越久地償付其枯乾的刑罰。誠如你們屈尊所寫，你們判定這是一種報復：由我太遲差去的信使，該與你們多逗留些時日。噢，何等溫柔撫慰的報復回償！噢，何等令人嚮往之殘酷的判決！誰能心平氣和地承受如此難堪的刑罰——竟是被關在你們親臨的樂園裡，以更有福的耽延得見你們呢？
30:2
Timeo plane, ne frequenter me jubeatis scribere, si disponitis tarditatem taliter vindicare. Aut si ego certus fuerim hujusmodi me animadversione plectendum, ipse procul dubio scripta porrigerem, quae justo rarius exarassem. Et utinam mihi vobiscum posito negaretur celeritas revertendi: et verba quae post longum tempUs legere, diutius in ipso meatus sui tramite donarer audire. Certe Deus viderit, quid ego apud judicium vestrum, vel audacia servitii, vel trepidatione promerear: tamen officii mei portitoribus reus ero, si eos prolixitate praesentiae vestrae delicti auo arguor emendatione trau* davcro.
I plainly fear lest you should frequently bid me write, if you resolve to avenge slowness in such a manner. Or if I were certain that I should be punished with a chastisement of this kind, I myself would without doubt hold out writings which I had penned more rarely than was just. And would that it were denied me, while placed with you, to return with speed: and that the words which I read after a long time, I might longer be granted to hear upon the very path of their course. Surely God will see what, before your judgment, I may merit—whether by the boldness of my service or by the trembling of it: yet I shall be guilty toward the bearers of my office, if I am convicted of the fault of having handed them over for the length of your presence to be amended.
我確實害怕，倘若你們決意要如此報復我的遲慢，你們便會頻頻吩咐我寫信。或者，我若確知自己將要受這樣的懲罰，我必毫不遲疑地遞上那些本該更少下筆的文字。但願當我與你們同在時，我竟不得速歸：但願我那些過了許久才讀到的言語，能讓我更長久地在其行進的途中親耳聆聽。神必看明，在你們的評斷之前，我或憑事奉的膽量、或憑事奉的戰兢，究竟該當何等；然而我對我職分的信使們仍是有罪的，若我被證實犯了這過失：竟為著你們親臨的長久，把他們交付出去以求得修正。