1You ask me to read and examine your little books in my retreat, to see whether they are worthy of publication; 1you add entreaties, you cite a precedent: for you ask me to take some spare time away from my own studies and share it with yours, and you add that Marcus Tullius fostered the talents of poets with wonderful kindness. 2But I need neither to be asked nor to be urged; 2for I both revere poetry itself most devoutly and love you most dearly. 2So I will do what you wish as carefully as I do it gladly. 3But I think I can already write back that the work is fine and should not be suppressed, as far as I could judge from what you read in my presence, if only your reading has not deceived me; 3for you read most sweetly and skilfully.
4Yet I trust that I am not so led by my ears that all the stings of my judgement are broken off by their charms: they may perhaps be blunted and dulled a little, but they cannot be plucked out and wrenched away. 5So it is not rashly that I pronounce on the whole already; the parts I shall test by reading. 5Farewell.