Thursday, April 8

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. Plus, you can find some Latin "pipilationes" at my Proverbia Latina feed.

HODIE: ante diem sextum Idus Apriles. 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:

• Mellarius, Apes et Fur, the story of some bees who don't know who their real enemy is.
• Divinator et Fures, the story of a fortune-teller who cannot foresee his own fortune.
• Mus in Cervisia et Cattus, the charming story of an inebriated mouse.
• Vulpes et Agricola, the story of a fox who saves herself by playing possum, so to speak.
• Corvus Aquilam Imitans, the story of an overly ambitious crow.

I've picked out my favorite one, the story of the inebriated mouse, Mus in Cervisia et Cattus, to share with you here in the blog - it's on the long side, but well worth reading:

Mūs semel cecidit in spūmam cervisiae, quando bullīvit. Cattus trānsiēns audīvit Mūrem pīpantem eō quod exīre nōn potuit. Et ait Cattus: Quārē clāmās? Rēspondit: Quia exīre nōn valeō. Ait Cattus: Quid dabis mihi, sī tē extraxerō? Ait Mūs: Quicquid postulāveris? Et ait Cattus: Sī tē hāc vice līberāverō, veniēs ad mē cum tē vocāverō? Et ait Mūs: Firmiter hoc prōmittō. Ait Cattus: Iūrā mihi. Et Mūs iūrāvit. Cattus Mūrem extraxit et īre permīsit. Semel Cattus ēsurīvit et vēnit ad forāmen Mūris, et dīxit eī quod ad ipsum exīret. Dīxit Mūs: Nōn faciam. Ait Cattus: Nonne iūrāstī mihi? Dīxit: Frater, ēbria fuī, quando iūrāvī.

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 Audio, sed taceo (English: I listen, but am silent).

3-Word Proverbs: Today's 3-word proverb is Amat victoria curam (English: Victory loves careful planning - that's the positive sense of cura, "concern, care, being careful").

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb with rhyme is: Vultus fortunae mutatur imagine lunae (English: The face of fortune changes like the moon's appearance).

Vulgate Verse: Today's verse is Usquequo, piger, dormis? Quando consurges ex somno tuo? (Proverbs 6:9). 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: Avarus nisi cum moritur, nil recte facit: A covertouse man doth no man good, but whan he dieth. They that give them selves onlie to the hourdinge up of money, be profitable to no body while they live. Only theyr death bringeth pleasure and profite to theyr heyres and executours.

Today's Poem: Today's poem is from the rhyming sayings collected by Wegeler, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com:

Qui dare vult aliis non debet dicere: Vultis?
Sed dicat plene: Dulcis amice, tene!

English: Someone who wants to give something to others should not say, 'Do you want it?' - instead, he should say outright: 'Take it, my dear friend!'" - With medieval rhyme, vowel quantity is not important, so plēnē and tenē can make for a rhyme here.

For an image today, here is the story of the ambitious crow, Corvus Aquilam Imitans - you can see the example of the eagle that he wants to imitate in the image also: