Laudator Temporis Acti

Asmenius, "De laude horti" = Anthologia Latina 635 Riese, tr. ‎Allen B. Skei in Jacob Handl, The Moralia of 1596, Part I (Madison: A-R Editions, Inc., 1970 = Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance, VII), p. 17:

Be present, Muses, offspring of greatest Jupiter. Let us sing the praises of a fertile little garden. A garden furnishes healthful food for the body and often brings varied tillings to the tiller. It offers pleasant vegetables, many kinds of herbs, shining grapes, and the fruit of trees. Gardens afford greatest pleasure and delight mixed with many rewards. The clear liquid of murmuring water washes them, and a brook led by furrows waters the sown fields. Flowers gleam with the varicolored buds and paint the lands with the sparkling beauty of gems. Grateful bees hum with their light buzzing when they taste the tops of flowers or young roses. The fertile vines weigh down the elms to which they have been wedded or cover the reeds interwoven with their tendrils. Trees offer shaded bowers and ward off the burning sun with their thick foliage. The twittering birds pour forth melodious sounds and always caress the breezes with their songs. A garden delights, calls, nourishes, possesses, and banishes heavy cares from a sad heart. It restores vigor to one's limbs and is a joy to behold; it repays toil with abundant rewards and imparts manifold joy to the tiller.

The Latin:

Adeste Musae, maximi proles Iovis,
Laudes feracis praedicemus hortuli.
Hortus salubres corpori praebet cibos
Variosque fructus saepe culto ri refert:
Holus suave, multiplex herbae genus,
Uvas nitentes atque fetus arborum.
Non defit hortis et voluptas maxima
Multisque mixta commodis iocunditas.
Aquae strepentis vitreus lambit liquor
Sulcoque ductus irrigat rivus sata.
Flores nitescunt discolore germine
Pinguntque terram gemmeis honoribus.
Apes susurro murmurant gratae levi,
Cum summa florum vel novos rores legunt.
Fecunda vitis coniuges ulmos gravat
Textasve inumbrat pampinis harundines.
Opaca praebent arbores umbracula
Prohibentque densis fervidum solem comis.
Aves canorae garrulos fundunt sonos
Et semper aures cantibus mulcent suis.
Oblectat hortus, avocat pascit tenet
Animoque maesto demit angores graves.
Membris vigorem reddit et visus capit.
Refert labori pleniorem gratiam,
Tribuit colenti multiforme gaudium.

Related post: The Garden, Full of Great Delight.