Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Round-Up: November 18

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 quartum decimum Kalendas Decembres. 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's verses are from the wondering little rhymes and word-games collected by Wegeler, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com as usual:
Vita evanescet, corpus mortale putrescet:
Fumus sumus, fimus fimus.
English: "Life vanishes, and the mortal body decays: Smoke we are, dung we become." Of course, the charm of the thing is quite lost without the Latin play on words: fimus fimus, "dung we become." :-)

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 is a bit of a pause before launching into the next phase of Caesar's life: Talia eius ante Gallicum bellum facta fuerunt.

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: Ad opus manum admovendo Fortunam invoca (English: Invoke Fortune by setting your hand to the work).

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 Non gladio, sed gratia (English: Not with the sword, but with kindness). 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: Etiam sine lege poena est conscientia (English: Even without law, conscience is a punishment).

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb in Leonine verse form is: Communis sors est, quod cunctis debita mors est. (English: It is our common lot that death is an obligation to all).

Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Egregia musica quae sit abscondita, nulli rei est (English: Outstanding music, if it is hidden, is of no account… which always makes me think of those "mute inglorious Miltons" in Gray's country churchyard).

Proverbium Perbreve of the Day: Today's two-word proverb is: Pax vobiscum (English: Peace be with you… and the Latin, of course, can safely omit the "be").

Proverbium Breve of the Day: Today's three-word proverb is: Facilia sapientibus cuncta (English: All things are easy for those who are wise).

Vulgate Verse of the Day: Today's verse is Sol non occidat super iracundiam vestram (Eph. 4:26). 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 Etiam me meae latrant canes (English: My own dogs are even barking at me - a saying you can find in Plautus's Poenulus).

Latin Animal Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's animal proverb is Sus acina dependet (English: The pig will pay the price for eating the grapes; from Adagia 3.4.23 - Erasmus actually cites a version where a farmer is speaking to the pig, telling the pig that it's going to pay the price for having eaten the grapes from the vine: Sus, acina dependes!, the idea being that for some small offense such as eating some grapes, you run the risk of a terrible penalty).

Proper Name Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's proper name proverb is Atticus aspectus (English: The Attic look; from Adagia 1.9.42 - given the proverbial character of the people of Athens, this referred to someone whose facial expression showed self-confidence and boldness, before they even spoke a single word).

Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Πρὸς σῆμα μητρυιᾶς κλαίει (English: He's weeping at the grave of his stepmother… so, to borrow another proverb, you could say he is crying crocodile tears!).

TODAY'S FABLES:

Fable of the Day: Today's fable of the day from Barlow is DE EQUO ET LEONE, the story of the horse and the lion, an example of the trickster tricked.

Ictibus Felicibus: Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Auceps et Palumbes, the story of the man hunting a bird who fell victim to his own ambitions! This is one of the fables I adapted for Tar Heel Reader, in a "play" format where the lines are all spoken by the characters in the story. Here's an illustration from that reader:




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