Ad Regem [Augustissimo Monarchae Jacobo]
The Quickening Light of Favor
The poet reflects on how the king's royal favor acts like the sun, transforming his humble poetic efforts into something worthy of notice.
Look: on the fertile banks of the receding Nile, the sun brings forth a new people with its warming light. Before the breeze of your favor shone upon me, Caesar, my Muses were nothing but common mud; now, because of you, they have enough life to crawl, and have dared to approach the chamber of your sun.
Read the original Latin
Ecce recedentis foecundo in littore Nili Sol generat populum luce fovente novum. Ante tui, Caesar, quam fulserat aura favoris, Nostrae etiam Musae vile fuere lutum; Nunc adeo per te vivunt, ut repere possint, Sintque ausae thalamum solis adire tui.
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