Luther thanks him for the sent poetic Latin translation of the Psalter and praises it, but even more the Psalter itself.
1) Luther is talking here about the time when he left Schmalkalden because of his stone disease and received relief at Tambach, but was still in great danger of his life on February 27 and the following days at Gotha. See letters No. 2347, 2348 and 2349.
2) In the issues: 1 Cor. III.
Handwritten at Gotha, Cod.185.4. Printed by Buddeus, p. 256 and by De Wette, vol. V, p. 74 f. German in Walch, vol. XXI, 1280.
To the most famous poet of our time, who is both godly and chaste, Mr. Eoban Hesse, his exceedingly dear brother in the Lord.
Grace and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. I have received your Psalter, most famous Eoban, and in the Lord most dear brother, which was given to me in your name. And with the greatest pleasure I have read it, read it and will always read it, so pleasant is your work to me, which has been spent on this to me exceedingly lovely book. I give you the greatest possible thanks that through your so kind, so godly muses I have been allowed to see this royal, divine, and among the Hebrew most excellent poem made into a Latin one. For I also praise the efforts of all others who have put their toil into translating, explaining and decorating this poem, even though they may not attain everything somewhere, for not all of us can do everything; with the exception of those [whom I do not praise], 3) who bring us the Jewish darknesses into the exceedingly bright light of some Psalms, for I cannot help but look at this with distaste. So I like yours the best, you who were invented as the first and perhaps the only one in the whole Latin language who so happily undertook to translate these divine poems into Latin poems, and accomplished this with equal happiness. In this way, you have indeed shown at the same time that in poets there is a spirit that comes from heavenly heights, but in you richer and stronger than in others, since you have been able to reproduce the thoughts (vires) of this royal poet, which other poets, however moved by great enthusiasm, have never recognized in the least. You would not have been able to do this in any way if you had not been moved by the things themselves beyond understanding, as we are wont to say, also in truth. But this movement does not come from nature, also not from the common power of the muses,
3) Inserted by us for the sake of understanding.
Letters from the year 1537. No. 2369. 2370. 2371.
or is received by your ordinary inspiration, but is in truth a new gift of the Spirit and a higher inspiration from heaven. Therefore, I not only wish you happiness, but also praise my Lord Jesus Christ, who has filled you with his spirit for this godly work, which will undoubtedly be of great benefit to others and serve as an example, especially to the youth, who through faithful teachers can learn from this poem both the sciences and the muses along with spiritual things and matters. For I confess that I am one of those whom poems move more strongly, delight more, and in whom they stick more firmly than unbound speech, even if it may be that of a Cicero and Demosthenes. Since this happens to me in other things, how much more will it happen to me in matters of the Psalter! With this book I have occupied myself from my youth, enjoyed and practiced, and, thanks be to God! not without great fruit. For, not to prefer my gift to the gifts of others, I boast this with a holy presumption, that for all the thrones and kingdoms of the world, as that one says, I would not want to be without the very thing, whatever it is, that I have obtained by delighting and meditating on the Psalms under the blessing of the Holy Spirit. For I do not have such foolish humility that I should pass over God's gifts, which He has bestowed upon me, with silence. Of myself, I certainly have enough and more than enough that can humble me and teach me that I am nothing; in God one must certainly be hopeful, be joyful in his gifts, triumph and boast, as I do in my own German Psalter, now even more so in your Eobanic; but all to the praise and glory of God, who is praised forever. In him be well for ever and ever, Amen. Wittenberg, August 1, 1537, Martin Luther.
(Wittenberg.) No. 2370. August 9, 1537.