# ad quos te potius vita beata vocat



## bedefan

Hello all, I'm wondering if anybody can help me out with _ad quos_ in this passage. It is by a Late Latin writer (ca. 580) if that helps at all.

suscipe missa tibi variorum munera florum,
ad quos te potius vita beata vocat.

My translation so far:

Accept the gifts sent to you, various flowers,
[compared to which] the blessed life calls you more.

I'm guessing _compared to which_ is the proper translation here, but that proper latinity would dictate _quibus _instead of _ad quos_ (ablative of comparison?). Or is there another, better reading for _ad quos_ that I'm missing here? Thanks!


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## relativamente

I don't think there's any comparation involved in this text.Just says that happy life of the  person receiving the gifts, perhaps a person devoted to arts, culture and so on, will make those gifts attractive to him. Perhaps the gifts are not flowers but something very selected and excelent, books perhaps.


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## judkinsc

"Potius" is likely an adverb there for "rather, more, preferably."

"towards which a blessed life calls you"? I'm not sure where to put the "potius" but I think the idea would be that the "life" calls to "te" _more_ than anything else.


Perhaps it would necessitate a slightly looser translation of "towards which a blessed life calls you more than anything".

Is there more context that might explain what is meant?


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## J.F. de TROYES

Generally "potius" comes after the determined word . Could'nt we understand "you preferably to anybody else " ? Anyhow "ad quos" has to be connected with "vocat", but the meaning of "quos" of which the antecedent is "flores" puzzles me. Symbolical value ?


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## wonderment

Hi.  I agree, more context would be helpful, so I Googled the first line and got the whole poem. On a quick reading, it seems to me that the way you’ve translated it, bedefan, is just fine (though I’d add an ‘of’ before ‘various’). There are different ways to express comparison in Latin: ablative of comparison, quam, and ad + accusative which is what I think we have here. From what the speaker tells us in the previous lines, the addressee is someone who would prefer heavenly riches (the blessed life) over earthly ones (gifts of flowers).


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## bedefan

Hey all, thanks for the responses. Yes, I should have given more context. The poem is meant to accompany a gift of flowers to a nun who has locked herself in a cell as a penance. The poet hopes that the flowers will entice the nun to come outside (because he's in love with her... maybe.).

I asked a friend of mine about this and he suggested that quos does indeed have the antecedent flores but ad quos should be taken with vocat, as in, "your holy life calls you to these flowers even more," i.e. you appreciate their beauty the more because you know what true beauty they foretell, i.e. the beauty of heaven. Does that make sense to people grammatically? I think it fits with the poem, which for context I give here in its entirety:

O regina potens, aurum cui et purpura vile est,
floribus ex parvis te veneratur amans.
Et si non res est, color est tamen ipse per herbas:
purpura per violas, aurea forma crocus.
Dives amore dei vitasti praemia mundi:
illas contemnens has retinebis opes.
Suscipe missa tibi variorum munera florum,
ad quos te potius vita beata vocat.
Quae modo te crucias, recreanda in luce futura,
aspicis hinc qualis te retinebit ager.
Per ramos fragiles quos nunc praebemus olentes
perpende hinc quantus te refovebit odor.
Haec cui debentur precor ut, cum veneris illuc,
meque tuis meritis dextera blanda trahat.
Quamvis te exspectet paradisi gratia florum,
isti vos cupiunt iam revidere foris.
Et licet egregio videantur odore placere,
plus ornant proprias te redeunte comas.


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## wonderment

Hi, again. I just had another look. The line that I was hesitating on was “illas contemnens has retinebis opes” (despising the former riches, you will retain the latter). Initially I took ‘illas’ as referring to the flowers of lines 2-4 and ‘has’ as referring to God’s love in line 5. That doesn’t seem correct to me now. It makes more sense to take ‘illas’ with ‘aurum and purpura’ (the actual gold and purple (dyed vestment=high rank?)—the ‘res’ of line 3) and ‘has’ with the gold and purple colors of the crocus and violets (which the lover is offering). 

I don’t think it’s grammatically incorrect the way you first translated lines 7-8. But it is more strained than your friend’s suggestion which does fit better: “accept the gifts sent to you, of various flowers/ to which the holy life calls you more.”  

The couplet is not descriptive (for her, heavenly things are clearly preferable--and this was my initial reading), but prescriptive. He’s trying to get her to anticipate the beauty that awaits her in paradise by meditating on the natural beauty of the world right outside her room (‘perpende hinc...’). 

Are you working from a commentary? Any help? I have only the Latin. And that’s my two cents. I’d be curious to hear if others have other readings of this poem.


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## bedefan

As far as I know, there's no commentary. We have a lot of Fortunatus extant, and his style is quite classical (to me he's reminiscent of Statius), but he hasn't been taken up much by scholars. I think because of the Christian subject matter. He has a lot of lovely poems like this one, and also a lot of "occasional" poetry, meant to commemorate churches, acts of beneficence by nobles, etc.

A French translation of his work came out sometime recently though, I may be able to dig up what that translator's interpretation was...


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## wonderment

Great if you could get to the French translation--thanks! I'd be curious to know how the translator renders 'ad quod' and lines 3-6. I'm not familar enough with Flavian poetry to judge, but the scene painting does seem to echo Statius. I'm surprised Fortunatus hasn't been embraced by the medievalists because courtly love is such a popular genre.


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