A few days ago you said you had read the commentaries of some writers on Matthew and Luke. One of them was weak in content and expression, the other childish in expression and dull in content.2. So you despised those trivial books and asked me to translate at least the thirty-nine homilies of our Adamantius3. on Luke, which are in Greek. Translation is a distressing task, like a torture--as Tullius says, it is writing with someone else's taste and not one's own.4. But I shall do it, because you do not ask for something more difficult. Once, at Rome, the holy Blesilla begged me to translate Origen's twenty-six books on Matthew, five more on Luke, and thirty-two on John into our language.5. You realize that such an undertaking is beyond my strength, my time, and my ability to work. Notice how much weight your authority and your desires have with me! I have laid aside the books of Hebrew Questions6. for a little while and have dictated the translation of a work that, in your opinion, is valuable; whatever it is worth is not mine,
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