63:1
Ne festivitati occurrerem necessitas obstitit; ut mihi festivitas occurreret, humanitas procuravit. Scribitis ergo indevotionem meam marinis vos copiis Juisse. Dignum scilicet genus supplicii, quod me faciat..... cum desiderio gulae conflictum. Satis vobis praesentari cuperem, si non taliter puniretis absentes. Utinam censurae vestræ in contumace poena non desinat. Nihil magis timeo quam quod me jubelis in posterum nil vereri. Indulgentiam illi qui rogaverit date, cui avari esse volueritis ignoscite. Caeterum me, qualitatem districtionis expertum, offensam magis vestram constat desiderare quam veniam.
必要之事攔阻我出席聖節；而仁愛之情卻安排讓聖節來就我。您於是寫道，說您已用海產豐富的供應，回敬了我缺乏敬意之過。這果真是一種相稱的懲罰，叫我與口腹之慾相爭！我本極願親自到您面前，只可惜您竟如此懲罰缺席之人。但願您對抗命之人所施的責罰之罰永不止息。我最懼怕的，莫過於您吩咐我此後甚麼都不必懼怕。凡懇求的人，就賜他寬容；凡您甘願吝惜的人，就饒恕他。至於我，既已嘗過您嚴厲的滋味，那麼顯然：我寧願得您的不悅，而非您的赦免。
Necessity stood in the way of my attending the festival; humanity has arranged that the festival should attend me. You write, then, that you have requited my want of devotion with provisions from the sea. A worthy kind of punishment indeed, which sets me in conflict with the craving of the palate! I would greatly desire to present myself to you, if you did not so punish the absent. Would that the penalty of your censure upon the contumacious might never cease. I fear nothing more than that you bid me fear nothing hereafter. Grant indulgence to whoever shall ask it; pardon the one toward whom you would be sparing. For the rest, since I have experienced the quality of your severity, it is clear that I desire your displeasure more than your pardon.
63:2
De caetero, orationibus vestris tribuat Deus noster, ut qui festivitati hujus præsentis anni officiis magis quam deliciis abfui, in tempore futuro vestris me orationibus affectu non simili praesentetis, et cum rediero, severitate simili absentasse credatis. Octo palustres quis quia se duo paria solearum, quae dentibus maceretis, aliquatenus commotus, non tamen ex integro malum pro malo reddens direxi.
至於其餘，願我們的神藉您的禱告使這事成就：我這因職責而非因享樂缺席今年聖節的人，在將來的日子裡，願您以禱告——雖不帶同樣的情意——把我獻上；並願您在我歸來之時，相信我當初的缺席帶著同樣的嚴峻。我已寄去八隻澤鳥，並兩對鰈魚，可供您以齒細嚼——我雖略為動氣，卻並未全然以惡報惡。
For the rest, may our God grant, by your prayers, that I—who was absent from this present year's festival by duties rather than by delights—you may in the future time present with your prayers, though with no like affection; and that, when I shall have returned, you may believe I absented myself with a like severity. Eight marsh-fowl, and two pairs of soles, which you may soften with your teeth—somewhat stirred, yet not wholly rendering evil for evil—I have dispatched.