Si legisse memoras
Ethicam Catonis,
In qua scriptum legitur:
‘Ambula cum bonis’,
Cum ad dandi gloriam
Animum disponis,
Supra cetera
Primum hoc considera:
Quis sit dignus donis?

Vultu licet hilari,
Verbo licet blando,
Sis equalis omnibus,
Unum tamen mando:
Si vis recte gloriam
Promereri dando,
Primum videas
Granum inter paleas,
Cui des et quando.

Dare non ut convenit,
Non est a virtute,
Bonum est secundum quid,
Sed non absolute;
Digne dare poteris
Et mereri tute
Famam muneris,
Si me prius noveris
Intus et in cute.

Si prudenter triticum
Paleis emundas,
Famam emis munere;
Sed caveto, cum das,
Largitatis oleum
Male ne offendas.
In te glorior,
Quia Codro codrior,
Omnibus abundas.

If you remember having read
The Ethics of Cato,
In which it is written:
‘Walk with good men’;
When you direct your mind
To the glory of giving,
Before all else,
First consider this:
Who is worthy of gifts?

Although you are equal to all
In your cheerful face,
And soft speech,
Yet I enjoin one thing:
If you want to rightly win glory
By giving,
First you must see
The grain amidst the chaff,
To whom you give and when.

To give where it is not appropriate
Does not belong to virtue,
It is relatively good,
But not absolutely;
You may give worthily
And safely merit
The gift of glory,
If first you know me
Inwardly and out.

If you prudently
Cleanse the wheat from the chaff,
You buy glory with your gift;
But beware, when you give,
That you do not wastefully shed
The oil of bountiful giving.
I glory in you,
Since, being poorer than Codrus,
You abound with all things.