Friday, October 2, 2009

Round-Up: October 2 - October 4

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 Nonas 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. This is one of Wegeler's rhyming poems, four lines this time, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com:
Tria sunt vere, quae me faciunt flere:
Primum quidem durum, quia scio, me moriturum;
Secundo me plango, quia morior et nescio quando;
Tertium autem flebo, quia nescio, ubi manebo.
English: "There are actually three things which make me weep: the first hard fact is that I know that I am going to die; second, I feel sorrow for my plight because I am dying and I don't know when; and the third thing I'll weep for is that I don't know where I will spend eternity!" All four lines have internal rhyme, although it's a bit weak in the third line (plango-quando)... but the other rhymes are unmistakable (vere-flere, durum-moriturum, flebo-manebo). :-)

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 has Caesar crossing the Alps: Narrant eum, cum Alpes transiret et praeter oppidulum quoddam barbaricum iter faceret paucis habitatum hominibus atque uile, amicis per iocum quaerentibus, an et hic de magistratibus essent contentiones ac de principatu certamina et potentium aemulationes? ... (this actually leads up to one of Caesar's most famous quotes - can you guess which one? you'll find out on Monday!)

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 an optimistic one from today: Scintilla etiam exigua in tenebris micat (English: A spark, even though it is small, shines in the shadows).

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 Nihil annis velocius (English: Nothing is faster than the years). 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: Semper metuendo sapiens evitat malum (English: By constant fear, the wise man avoids trouble - although I'm not big on fear myself, that is a nice use of the Latin gerund!).

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb in Leonine verse form is: Nemo tam gnarus, qui non sit laudis avarus (English: There is no man so wise that he is not greedy for praise).

Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Tantale poculum bibemus (English: We will drink the cup of Tantalus... which, of course, is not much of a drink at all - "tantalizing" though it may be!).

Proverbium Perbreve of the Day: Today's two-word proverb is: Rete inflas (English: You're trying to inflate a net... which is something like trying to draw water with a sieve!).

Proverbium Breve of the Day: Today's three-word proverb is: Amoris umbra invidia (English: Jealousy is love's shadow... alas, how true that is!).

Vulgate Verse of the Day: Today's verse is Graecis ac barbaris, sapientibus et insipientibus debitor sum (Romans 1:14). 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 Non arabis in bove simul et asino (English: You will not plow with the ox at the same time as with the donkey - one of those rules from Deuteronomy which has lots of metaphorical applications, too).

Proper Name Proverb of the Day: Today's proper name proverb is Delphicus gladius (English: the Delphic sword, which was proverbial for being used for many different purposes - in Delphi, it could be used both for the slaying of sacrificial victims and for the punishment of wrongdoers, and by extension it came to mean any tool with many uses).

Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Μίδας ὄνου ὦτα εἶχεν (English: Midas had the ears of a donkey.. a secret supposedly known only to his barber, ha ha).

TODAY'S FABLES:

Fable of the Day: Today's fable of the day from Barlow is DE SOLE ET VENTO, a story about the contrast between brute force and gentle persuasion.

Ictibus Felicibus: Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Mus et Rana, the story of how the frog who thought she was playing a trick fell victim to her own deceit, as you can see in the illustration below (image source), by Milo Winter:





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