TO CHARLES DE L'ÉCLUSE

OF ARRAS original: "Atrebatem." Clusius was born in Arras, then part of the Spanish Netherlands..

It is a work worthy of effort, nor does it lack a value
    to be measured by fame, those lucubrations Refers to scholarly work produced by candlelight or late-night study. which,
        as a vigilant and industrious youth,
            you forged with eager labor
Into the open light; now as an old man, you may
    bind them more tightly together in a single bundle,
        so that one volume may represent all things
            in an ordered series.
Truly, I hardly believe, refined CLUSIUS, that this
    final care and polishing—with such great sweat
        and so many troubles—cost you as much
            as those earlier works;
Even though pleasure is often accustomed to provide
    delight of its own accord in the midst of effort
        to determined minds, much more so
            in the supreme work of one's genius.
For a more noble mind rejoices in itself
    when it begins something magnificent with praise
        and finishes it with fruit; and it does not
            rashly allow the final rollers original: "umbilicos." The decorative ends of the rod around which a scroll was wrapped; here used metaphorically for the completion of a book.
To remain perhaps wanting the final hand,
    either unpolished or too rough: although otherwise
        even a small work, once finished,
            loves to be approved by the judgment of diligent men.
We The poet likely refers to himself and other lesser writers. spitefully prune away ill-planted
    thickets of thorns; we even weed out
        certain well-placed herbs along with
            heavy tares and dismal oats.
But you arrange your seeds of little herbs
    in a more fortunate order, as is fitting,
        and rare stems, and whatever both foreign
            and our own soil produces through
More distinct species. I seem to see the details
    of each one already brought back
        through measured boundaries and small garden beds,
            latticed in a proper quincunx A geometric pattern of five points, like the dots on a die, often used for planting trees or gardens.,
That is, to a more perfect precision original: "ad unguem." Literally "to the fingernail," a Roman expression for highly finished work..
    Behold, what will there be that you ought
        to change? Everything is clear, and the work
            is fit to win the favor of all.
Our descendants will say, I think, that you were
    wonderfully diligent.