HODIE: ante diem tertium decimum Kalendas Novembres. You can add a Roman calendar as a widget in your blog or webpage, or display it as a Google Calendar: here's how.
TODAY'S POEM: Here is today's little poem, from the Poetry Widget. Today's poem is a fable in iambic verse by Desbillons, with his account of the fable of the boy at the edge of the well, which prompted Luck herself to intervene. There's a word list as usual at NoDictionaries.com:
Ad oram putei dormiebat Puerulus.English: A little boy was sleeping at the mouth of a well. Fortune woke him up and said: "Get away from there! For if you were to fall into the well, everybody would say the fault was mine, not yours!" This is a wonderful little fable about how we are prone to blame our (bad) luck, rather than accepting responsibility for things. In the first line, the meter is easier if you read the "i" as a semivowel in dormiebat (three syllables) and the first "u" as a semivowel in puerulus (two syllables); in the third line read "eu" as a diphthong in puteum (two syllables) and syncopate the middle vowel in caderes (two syllables).
Eum Fortuna suscitans: Abi hinc, ait;
In puteum namque si caderes, non hanc tuam
Fuisse culpam, sed meam omnes dicerent.
TODAY'S TWITTER:
Vita Caesaris: You can see my IVLIVS CAESAR feed with a sentence from Plutarch's Life of Caesar each day in Greek, Latin and English. Today's Latin portion continues the dilemma Caesar faced upon returning from Spain - to triumph, or not to triumph? Cato primum lege ad postulatum id oppugnandum annixus quum uideret multos Caesari deditos, rem mora iniecta impediit, totumque diem dicendo absumpsit. Itaque Caesar statuit, omisso triumpho, consulatum persequi.
Proverbiis Pipilo: You can see my Proverbia feed of Latin proverbs which I "tweet" while I am online each day (in English, too). Here's one from today about things coming in due time: Pira, dum sunt matura, sponte cadunt (English: Pears, when they are ripe, fall down by themselves).
TODAY'S PROVERBS:
You can get access to all the proverb of the day scripts (also available as random proverb scripts) at the SchoolhouseWidgets.com website.
Audio Latin Proverb of the Day: Today's audio Latin proverb is Cibus non qui plurimus, sed qui suavissimus (English: Food: not the largest quantity but the most pleasant). To read a brief essay about this proverb and to listen to the audio, visit the Latin Via Proverbs blog.
Maxims of Publilius Syrus: Today's proverb from Publilius Syrus is: Sero in periclis est consilium quaerere (English: It is too late to seek advice in the midst of dangers).
Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb in Leonine verse form is: Transit fine brevi puerilis flosculus aevi (English: The youthful flower of life passes by in its short course - not the late Latin pronunciation of aevi to rhyme with brevi).
Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Figulus ollis ansas ponit (English: It is the potter who puts ears on the jugs- that is, it is the potter who decides what kind of ears to put on the jugs, and not anyone else).
Proverbium Perbreve of the Day: Today's two-word proverb is: Coronat fides (English: Faith confers a crown - you can also find it in the form fides probata coronat, where the faith has been put to the test).
Proverbium Breve of the Day: Today's three-word proverb is: Aegrotanti omnia amara (English: For someone who is ailing, all things are bitter).
Vulgate Verse of the Day: Today's verse is Secura mens quasi iuge convivium (Proverbs 15.15). For a translation, check out the polyglot Bible, in English, Hebrew, Latin and Greek, at the Sacred Texts Archive online.
Latin Animal Proverb of the Day: Today's animal proverb is Canes timidi vehementius latrant quam mordent (English: Dogs, when scared, bark more fiercely than they bite - something like our proverbial, "all bark, no bite").
Latin Animal Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's animal proverb is Midas auriculas asini (English: Midas has the ears of a donkey; from Adagia 1.3.67 - this being a secret the foolish Midas thought he could safely entrust to his barber - ha!).
Proper Name Proverb of the Day: Today's proper name proverb is Archimedes non posset melius describere (English: Archimedes himself could not provide a better explanation - with Archimedes standing in as the personification of wisdom itself).
Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Ἐχῖνος τὸν τόκον ἀναβάλλει (English: The hegehog delays giving birth - and at her own cost, since the baby hedgehogs just get more and more prickly the longer she waits; this is one of my favorite proverbs about the dangers of procrastination!).
TODAY'S FABLES:
Ictibus Felicibus: Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Agricola et Filii, the story of how a farmer used the example of a bundle of sticks to teach his sons how to get along.
Fable of the Day: Today's fable of the day from Barlow is DE CICADA ET FORMICA, the famous story of the ant and the grasshopper - a very apt story as winter is almost upon us!
For an image today, here is a picture of Midas with his donkey ears (it's a statue in the Ankara Museum in Turkey) to accompany the proverb cited above: Midas auriculas asini. :-)
Aesop's Fables in Latin now available at Amazon.com.
