To Coban Hesse - Martin Luther

TO COBAN HESSE

Luther sends translation of the 118th Psalm.

August Grace and peace! I send my promised psalm, excellent Hesse, in the form into which my pen has transformed it, or deformed it. I received yours along with the letter, which I read daily. I do not expect you to be as much delighted with mine as I am with yours, although it is the same psalm. For I never would compare myself to such a poet. For you are the king of poets, and the poet of kings; or rather the royal poet, and poetical king, who makes the royal poet talk so beautifully in a strange tongue. Accept my thanks for giving me such pleasure. Out of a fat sophist I have turned into a sordid theologian; and besides this despicable store of theology I have nothing. Accept this instead of a pre- sent, and greet your queen and princes tenderly from me, also Wenzel. I shall not write him now, as last night I had such pain in a tooth that I am quite limp today. May the Lord guide and maintain you. From the desert. MARTIN LUTHER . (Schutze.)