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"[The same thing as the proverb has happened to me:] describing your dream to you. Surely you would suppose that we do not willingly (for I hesitate to say 'unwillingly') allow a man both fair and good to depart from us [even] for a short time. Perhaps it would serve as an explanation in some small way for me and you and him, if he should be your [friend] and if I should meet you through him. But it is not fitting for me to say more about any of these things to you about him,[1] [as] you surely know. For if I point him out to you now, the proverb has happened to me: describing your dream to you."

*tauto\n pe/ponqa tw=| th=s paroimi/as, to\ so\n o)/nar soi dihgou/menos: o(/ti me\n ou)x e(ko/ntes [o)knw= ga\r ei)pei=n w(s a)/kontes], to\n kalo/n te kai\ a)gaqo\n pro\s o)li/gon h(mw=n e)petre/yamen xwrisqh=nai, tekmai/rh| dh/pouqen. i)/sws d' a)/n moi kai\ soi\ ge/noito kai\ au)tw=| de\ pro\s paramuqi/an mikro/n, ei) soi\ me\n e)kei=nos, h(mei=s de\ di' e)kei/nou sou= tu/xwmen. e)/sti de/ moi tou/twn ou)de\n u(pe\r au)tou= ple/on pro/s se kaqh/kei le/gein, oi)=sqa dh/pouqen. ei) ga\r e)gw/ soi nu=n au)to\n gnwri/zw, pe/ponqa to\ th=s paroimi/as, to\ so\n o)/nar soi dihgou/menos.

This material is unidentifiable; Adler notes Bernhardy's suggested attribution to the emperor Julian. (No such 'proverb' is registered by the paroemiographers.)
See also tau 802, which reproduces the 'proverb' and the last sentence of this entry; and cf. gamma 349.
[1] The syntax of this sentence seems faulty, with two finite verbs.

David Whitehead (augmented notes; another keyword; tweaking; raised status) on 7 March 2014@04:49:30.
David Whitehead on 7 March 2014@04:49:46.
Catharine Roth (tweaked translation, added a note) on 14 September 2022@00:26:35.

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