Monday, April 26, 2010

Round-Up: April 26

Here is a round-up of today's blog posts - and for previous posts, check out the Bestiaria Latina Blog archives. You can keep up with the latest posts by using the RSS feed, or you might prefer to subscribe by email.

HODIE: ante diem sextum Kalendas Maias. You can add a Roman calendar as a widget in your blog or webpage, or display it as a Google Calendar: here's how.

MORE FABLES: Here are today's fables from the Ictibus Felicibus project. These fables ALL have long marks, plus stress marks for easy reading, and the poems have meter marks, too, along with an easy-to-read prose presentation of the story:
  • Graculus et Pavones, the story of the jackdaw who got all dressed up.
  • Grues et Anseres, the story of the high-flying storks and the less lofty geese.
  • Mus et Milvus, the hilarious story of a mouse which shows that no good deed goes unpunished.
  • Cupido et Mors, the story of what happened when Cupid and Death swapped weapons.
  • Pastor et Mare, the story of a shepherd who learned to mistrust the sea.
I've picked out my favorite one, the story of the chubby geese, Grues et Anseres, to share with you here in the blog:
Ānserēs et Gruēs in eōdem pascēbantur prātō. Vēnātōribus autem vīsīs, Gruēs propter ālārum longitūdinem et corporum levitātem statim ēvolāvērunt, Ānserēs vērō cum ob inūtile onus humī manēbant, captī fuērunt.
TODAY'S MOTTOES & PROVERBS: You can get access to ALL the "proverb of the day scripts" (also available as random proverb scripts) at the SchoolhouseWidgets.com website.

3-Word Mottoes: Today's 3-word motto is Vires animat virtus (English: Excellence revives our powers - although the English lacks the sound play of the Latin).

3-Word Proverbs: Today's 3-word proverb is Adeunt etiam optima (English: The best things are yet to be).

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb with rhyme is: Si tibi do mannos, numeres ne dentibus annos (English: If I give you some ponies, don't look at their teeth to guess their age - a rhyming Latin version of "don't look a gift horse in the mouth").

Vulgate Verse: Today's verse is Stultorum infinitus est numerus (Ecc. 1:15). For a translation, check out the polyglot Bible, in English, Hebrew, Latin and Greek, at the Sacred Texts Archive online.

Elizabethan Proverb Commentary: Here is today's proverb commentary, this time by Taverner: Quam quisque norit artem, in hac se exerceat: Let every man exercise him selfe, in the facultie that he knoweth. Let the cobler medle with cloutinge his neighbours shoes, and not be a Capitaine in fielde, or meddell with matters concerning a comon welth. Let them iudge of controversies in the christen religion, that be learned in the same, and not every Jacke plowman.

Today's Poem: Today's poem is one of the elegant little epigrams by Owen (4.217), with a word list at NoDictionaries.com:
Sola dolenda reor praesentia damna. Dolemus
Praeterita heu nimium || sero, futura cito.
English: "I think that only present losses should be grieved. We grieve for past losses too much, alas, and we grieve future losses too quickly." I would guess that if you are feeling down, it's definitely better to feel down about the present and not worry about the past or the future!

For an image today, here is Francis Barlow's illustration for the story of Cupid and Death, Cupido et Mors: