That Suffenus of yours, Varus, whom you have known well,
is attractive and well-spoken and sophisticated,
and the same man makes the most verses by far.
I think that either ten thousand or more have been written
by him, nor have they, as it is custom, been written
on palimpsests: [but] royal papers, new books,
new scroll-knobs, red leather-straps, skins,
aligned with lead and all things having been smoothed with pumice.
When you read these, that handsome and sophisticated
Suffenus is seen as a goat-milker or a digger
again: he shrinks back and changes by so much.
We think, why is this? He who just now was
seen as a jester by manner or somebody rather knowing about this thing,
the same one is duller than a dull countryside,
as soon as he touched poems, the same one is not ever as
equally happy as when he writes poetry:
he rejoices about himself and admires himself so much.
Evidently we all are deceived the same way, nor is there anyone
whom you are not able to see Suffenus in some way.
To each their own error has been assigned;
but we do not see the knapsack which is on our back.
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Suffēnus iste, Vāre, quem probē nōstī,
homō est venustus et dicāx et urbānus,
idemque longē plūrimōs facit versūs.
Putō esse ego illī mīlia aut decem aut plūra
perscrīpta, nec sīc, ut fit, in palimpsestō
relāta: cartae rēgiae, novī librī,
novī umbilīcī, lōra rubra, membrānae,
dērēcta plumbō et pūmice omnia aequāta.
Haec cum legās tū, bellus ille et urbānus
Suffēnus ūnus caprimulgus aut fossor
rūrsus vidētur: tantum abhorret ac mūtat.
Hoc quid putēmus esse? Quī modo scurra
aut sī quid hāc rē scītius vidēbātur,
īdem īnfacētō est īnfacētior rūre,
simul poēmata attigit, neque īdem umquam
aequē est beātus ac poēma cum scrībit:
tam gaudet in sē tamque sē ipse mīrātur.
Nīmīrum idem omnēs fallimur, neque est quisquam
quem nōn in aliquā rē vidēre Suffēnum
possīs. Suus cuique attribūtus est error;
sed nōn vidēmus manticae quod in tergo est.
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