Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Round-Up: September 23

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 nonum Kalendas Octobres. 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 is one of the emblematic poems of Alciato. There is a word list at NoDictionaries.com; note also that the words aurata and sarda are names of species of fish in the poem - plus you can see the emblem online here!
Pisciculos aurata rapit medio aequore sardas,
Ni fugiant pavidae, || summa marisque petant.
Ast ibi sunt mergis fulicisque voracibus esca.
Eheu, intuta manens || undique debilitas.
English: "The gilt fish seizes the little sardine fish in the midst of the ocean's depth, if they don't run away in fright and head for the surface of the sea. But when they get there, they become food for the greedy gulls and water fowl. Alas, weakness remains unprotected everywhere." Yes, indeed, there are somedays when I feel exactly like those sardines: out of the mouth of the gilt fish into the maw of the gull! :-)

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 show Caesar trying to distance himself - and fast! - from the Clodius scandal: Caesar cum uxore statim diuortium fecit. Testimonium uero iussus dicere, nihil se eorum quo Clodio obiicerentur cognitum habere respondit.

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 all brawn and no brains: Vis sine consilio mole ruit sua (English: Force without planning collapses under its own weight).

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 Patria sua cuique iucundissima (English: To each person, his own fatherland is the most agreeable). To read a brief essay about this proverb and to listen to the audio, visit the Latin Via Proverbs blog.

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's rhyming proverb is: Ubi mel, ibi fel (English: Where there's honey, there's bile).

Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Numquid aliquis panem petenti lapidem porriget? (English: Surely no one reaches out a stone to someone seeking bread? - a wonderful use of the loaded Latin question word, numquid).

Proverbium Perbreve of the Day: Today's two-word proverb is: Fuge magna (English: Flee from big things... personally, I find this very good advice - it can mean big affairs of state or, in my case, big works of literature: I flee from big epics to work on little proverbs!).

Proverbium Breve of the Day: Today's three-word proverb is: Instar aquae tempus (English: Time is an image of water... it flows! Just think of Heraclitus and his river.).

Vulgate Verse of the Day: Today's verse is Tempus custodiendi et tempus abiciendi (Ecc. 3:6). 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 Vacca, quae multum boat, parum lactis habet (English: A cow who moos a lot gives little milk).

Proper Name Proverb of the Day: Today's proper name proverb is Vel Megaram usque (English: [To go] Even as far as Megara - in which Megara stands for a wealthy and prosperous destination, the kind of place you would be willing to go a long way to reach!).

Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Χελώην Πεγάσῳ συγκρίνεις (English: You're comparing a tortoise to Pegasus - that mythical flying horse of supernatural speed!).

TODAY'S FABLES:

Ictibus Felicibus: Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Pastoris Puer et Agricolae, the famous story of the boy who cried, "Wolf!"

Fable of the Day: Today's fable of the day from Barlow is DE NUTRICE ET LUPO, a story about a nurse who cries "Wolf!" in quite a different kind of story.

Tar Heel Readers: Materials continue to accumulate at Tar Heel Reader (keep up with the latest items at the Libelli Latini blog). Today I decided to feature Gilbo, Pars Quinta Decima, the fifteenth in Anthony Gibbins's series of little stories about Gilbo and his family. This is the last of the Gilbo stories so far... let's hope Anthony has some more in store for us! Euge!





Aesop's Fables in Latin now available at Amazon.com.