Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Round-Up: October 19

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. I'm Twittering again now at Aesopus and AesopusEnglish.

HODIE: ante diem quartum decimum Kalendas Novembres (and yes, you can have your own Roman Google Calendar).

VERBUM HODIERNUM: Today's word is ARRIPIO - read a brief essay about the word at the Verbosum blog. Here's one of the sayings you can find in the essay: Arripe horam, ultimam timeas, "Seize the moment; fear the last one" (that spells out more explicitly the idea behind sayings like carpe diem - you need to seize the moment because the next one might be your last!).

MILLE FABULAE: New materials at the blog include fables with images and some new illustrated fables too. This is also where you can download your free PDF copy of the Mille Fabulae et Una book.

FABULAE FACILES: The new easy-to-read fable is Leonis Filius et Homo, a great story from Camerarius about a teenage lion who doesn't listen to his dad's good advice.

PODCASTS: Today's Latin audio fable is Vulpes et Mulieres , the story of the fox and the women who were eating roast chickens.

ENGLISH AESOP: Today's English fables are from Sir Roger L'Estrange, Wright's verse translation of La Fontaine and the limericks for Crane's Baby's Own Aesop.

TODAY'S MOTTOES & PROVERBS: Widgets available at SchoolhouseWidgets.com.

3-Word Mottoes: Today's 3-word motto is Obdurandum adversus urgentia (English: Stand strong against the things that bear down on you - a motto which you can find in one of Alciato's emblems).

3-Word Proverbs: Today's 3-word proverb is Vento navigare suo (English: To sail by one's own wind - and the sailor who can supply his own wind is the ultimate in self-reliance!).

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb with rhyme is: Pix dum palpatur, palpando manus maculatur (English: When you touch pitch, the hand that does the touching is stained).

Vulgate Verse: Today's verse is Sicut fecisti, fiet tibi (Ob. 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: Sui cuique mores fingunt fortunam: A mans owne maners doe shape him his fortune. Men commonlie when anie adversitie chaunce, accuse, or when they see other men to prospere well in theyr matters, they say it is theyr fortune. So they ley all together upon fortune, thinking there is such a thing called fortune that ruleth all. But surely they are highlie deceived. It is their owne maners, their own qualities, touches, condicions, and procedinges that shape them this fortune, that is to say, that cause them, eyther to be sette forwarde or backeward, either to prospere or not to prospere.

Today's Poem: Today's poem is one of the tiny fables in iambic verse by Desbillons, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com:
Ad oram putei dormiebat Puerulus.
Eum Fortuna suscitans: Abi hinc, ait;
In puteum namque si caderes, non hanc tuam
Fuisse culpam, sed meam omnes dicerent.
English: "A little boy was sleeping at the edge of a well; Lady Luck awakens him and says, Get away from here, for if you were to fall into the well, they would all say that it was not your fault, but mine." In other words: people want blame "bad luck" instead of sheer foolishness for the disasters that befall them.

For an image today, here's an illustration to go along with Desbillons's little poem (source):