Si multis placuerit vita tua, tibi placere non poterit

In English: If your life is pleasing to many, it won't have been pleasing to you.

In other words: By trying to please others, you won't be able to please yourself. This seems to me a very wise saying about the hazards of life spent in seeking the praise and approval of others, so much so that we need to do in order to satisfy, to really satisfy, ourselves. This is definitely something that I've had to confront in my own choices in life, going my own way professinally. Now as a teacher, I constantly hope to inspire my students to work for themselves and their own satisfaction, rather than trying to please me or jumping through hoops in order to get a diploma. Luckily, by having students create their own websites and keep their own blogs in my classes (you can take a look at mythfolklore.net), there is at least a chance for them to do something based on their own interests, rather than simply taking exams. School seems to be, sadly, a place where students learn to please others rather than learning how to set their own standards and then strive to live up to them.

This saying comes from the sayings of Publilius Syrus, whose Sententiae are one of the great sources for classical Latin sayings. You can read the sayings of Publilius Syrus online at the Ad Fontes Latin Library.

It is through that Publilius Syrus lived sometime in the first century B.C.E., and that he came from Syria (hence his name "Syrus") to Italy as a slave and later won his freedom and gained fame as a performer. At some point the collection of sayings attributed to Publilius were written down and were known to the author Aulus Gellius, who lived in the 2nd century C.E. This makes Publilius a contemporary of another famous slave in ancient Rome, Phaedrus, who came to Rome as a slave (probably from Thrace), later won his freedom, and is known to us today for having put Aesop's fables into verse. You can read Phaedrus's fables online at aesopica.net.

The fact that these two collections of wisdom literature from the ancient world were assembled by former slaves should come as no surprise. We all need to liberate ourselves and it is wisdom that might allow us to do that.

So here is today's proverb read out loud:

3440. Si multis placuerit vita tua, tibi placere non poterit.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Si rota defuerit, tu pede carpe viam

In English: If your wheel's broken, you better make your way on foot.

I chose this proverb today after watching a great movie tonight, Apollo 13. When their spacecraft suffered catastrophic failure on their mission to the moon, these astronauts and all the technicians back on Earth found a way to make it work, cobbling together an air filter out of spare parts, hooking up batteries backwards to squeeze out every bit of juice to bring the astronauts back home safely. Although they certainly couldn't make their way back on foot from outer space, all the people involved in this operation exemplified the meaning of this proverb.

There's an old Aesop's fable that makes the same point by means of a story:

An ox-driver was bringing his wagon from town and it fell into a steep ditch. The man should have pitched in and helped, but instead he stood there and did nothing, praying to Heracles, who was the only one of the gods whom he really honoured and revered. The god appeared to the man and said, "Grab hold of the wheels and goad the oxen: pray to the gods only when you're making some effort on your own behalf; otherwise, your prayers are wasted!"

In other words: God helps those who help themselves! You might pray to the god to fix your wheel, but be prepared to listen to that booming voice instead advise you: "If your wheel's broken, you better make your way on foot." And while we're at it, we might thank God for giving us feet to go with!

And here is today's proverb read out loud:

3441. Si rota defuerit, tu pede carpe viam.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Nec habeo, nec careo, nec curo.

In English: I have not, I lack not, I care not.

This phrase was made famous by George Wither's Motto, published in 1621. Wither (1588-1667) was a satirical poet in his younger years, and also the author of religious poetry, becoming a Puritan in his later years. You can read some of his poetry at the RPO website at the University of Toronto.

I have a great personal fondness for this motto, as it expresses a thought that seems to me very neglected in our society, which assumes that getting more and having more is the solution to all life's problems. This saying declares exactly the opposite of that materialistic and acquisitive philosophy: I don't have it, I don't need it, and I don't care about it. This is the positive sense of "not caring," in the sense of being without worries, without concerns, without troubles - not in the sense of being careless or uncaring, but rather "carefree."

Every year, as the frenzy of Christmas shopping reaches its annual crescendo, the international Buy Nothing Day attempts to persuade people to stop and think, instead of shop. You can read more about last year's Buy Nothing Day at the AdBusters website. It seems to me admirably sane. AdBusters are also the promoters of TV Turnoff Week... but that is a topic for another time! I'm sure, though, that George Wither could have modified his motto to sing the praises of life without television as well!

And here is today's proverb read out loud:

1553. Nec habeo, nec careo, nec curo.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Dum pastores odia exercent, lupus intrat ovile

In English: While the shepherds quarrel, the wolf enters the sheepfold.

I offer up this proverb as a commentary on the squabbles between the Democrats and the Republicans who seem to be spending a lot of time right now blaming each other for events gone by (who tried the hardest to catch bin Laden) instead of trying to figure out how to bring some peace into a world staggered by violence.

Of course, we are not just sheep. The poor sheep have to put up with the shepherds they have got. Unlike the sheep, we do have a choice in all this: we get to VOTE; sheep don't. Sadly, it's exactly because elections are coming that the shepherds are quarreling on television every night, when we would like some attention paid to the problems of the flock. Problems here and now: not the blame game of the past.

There's an Aesop's fable about shepherds that I've often thought about in relationship to both Afghanistan and Iraq, where we formerly armed the Taliban (because they were enemies of the Soviets) and where we formerly armed Hussein (because he was an enemy of Iran).

A shepherd found a little wolf cub and raised it. Then, when the cub was bigger he taught it to steal from his neighbours' flocks. Once he had learned how to do this, the wolf said to the shepherd, "Now that you have shown me how to steal, take care that many of your own sheep don't go missing!"

So it's not just that we are currently fighting wolves there in the Middle East - they are "our" wolves... or at least, they used to be. What a world we have made for ourselves.

And here is today's proverb read out loud:

1558. Dum pastores odia exercent, lupus intrat ovile.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Avarum irritat, non satiat pecunia

In English: Money provokes the greedy person; it doesn't satisfy him.

The verbal charm of this Latin proverb depends on the similarity between the two verbs here: irritat, non satiat. I've been trying to come up with a pair of English verbs that fit together as nicely, but I haven't managed to come up with anything I like. Maybe: "Money makes a greedy man demented, not contented."

I chose this proverb for today in honor of the sentencing of Enron's Andrew Fastow, a perfect example of greed gone mad. Fastow has been sentenced today to six years in prison, the result of a plea bargain in which he testified against his bosses at Enron, Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.

During the summer, I posted a large collection of Latin proverbs about greed after I saw the genius documentary film, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. If you have not seen this film, I recommend it very highly. I watched it out a sense of civic duty, since Enron was in the news all the time, but I really did not know very much about the story. I expected the documentary to be a bit tedious, but instead it was completely gripping, from start to finish. Through the words and deeds of Lay, Skilling and Fastow, the film shows how their greed for money, for insane amounts of money, launched them into a world that has nothing to do with reality. Enron was a real business, but what they were doing was surreal - and dangerous. It's a cautionary tale that I found both shocking and sobering.

The Romans had many proverbs denouncing the dangers of greed. Proverbs that might have helped Jeff Fastow stay out of jail. Ken Lay has since died - and as for Jeff Skilling, his sentencing is scheduled for next month. I'll have another proverb in honor of that occasion, too!

Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1090. Avarum irritat, non satiat pecunia.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Quam felix vita transit sine negotiis

In English: How happily life passes by without business to do.

I am posting this proverb in honor of the joys of the weekend... and as a lament for the work week that stretches from Monday through Friday. Sigh. My weekend passed very happily - and all too swiftly - without any job duties to occupy my time.

The Latin word for "business" here is negotium, as in the English words "negotiate" and also the phrase "negotiable currency." The etymology of the word in Latin is really nifty: negotium is a compound of the word nec, meaning "not," and otium, meaning "leisure." (the final "c," which is a voiceless consonant, turns into its voiced counterpart "g" because of the following vowel).

So, in Latin "business" is literally "not-leisure." In other words: not-weekend. This is an etymology that the Romans themselves were aware of, as a grammarian explains: "negotium, quod non sit otium," "[it's called] negotium because it's not otium."

Even though the Romans were an admittedly hard-working people, I like the fact that their word for "business" constantly reminded them of that blissful alternative: every time they said negotium there was a hint of leisure, of otium, reminding them of how nice the weekend can be!

So here is today's proverb read out loud - and listen for the otium there in the phrase sine negotiis:

2236. Quam felix vita transit sine negotiis.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Alterum pedem in cymba Charontis habet.

In English: He's got one foot in Charon's boat.

In other words: he's just one step away from death, with one foot in the grave already. According to Greek mythology, Charon is the boatman of the dead. It was Charon's job to bear the souls of the dead in his boat across the river of Acheron, which marked the boundary of the underworld. The dead supposedly had to pay a fee for this service, and so a coin, an obol was sometimes placed in the mouth of the dead, the price of that final journey in Charon's boat. You might be familiar with the harrowing representation in Michelangelo's depiction in the Sistine Chapel, where Charon has raised an oar and is about to beat the dead souls who have entered his boat.

In English, we use a quite different metaphor to express this same idea. Death is a kind of house, and we are at Death's door, or knocking at Death's door, or lying at Death's doorstep. The idea is that we then pass through that door, never to return. When looking for more information about the history of this saying in English, I found this lovely bit of a poem by Sir John Davies, cited in Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets:

But as Noah's pigeon, which return'd no more,
Did show she footing found, for all the flood,
So when good souls, departed through death's door,
Come not again, it shows their dwelling good.

For our culture, Noah and his dove are immediately recognizable, just as Charon and his boat were for the ancient Greeks and Romans. The abstract language of theology or the impersonal language of science can provide people with one way of pondering our existence, but the use of stories and myths has always been, and will always be, a powerful way to imagine those things we cannot see but which we need to talk about.

So here is today's proverb read out loud:

1518. Alterum pedem in cymba Charontis habet.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Celerius quam asparagi coquuntur.

In English: Faster than asparagus is cooked.

I thought I would do this saying in honor of the asparagus we will be eating for dinner tonight! As anyone knows who has watched the genius mini-series I, Claudius, this saying about asparagus was a favorite of the Emperor Augustus. That's what the historian Suetonius tells us, at least.

The word "asparagus" is a Latin word which the Romans borrowed from the Greeks. We have taken over this Latin word directly into English, as you can guess from the -us ending. In Latin, however, you find the word used in the plural (as in this proverb), whereas in English we treat asparagus as a collective noun, without a plural form. I took a look in the Oxford English Dictionary, which informs me that the more common spelling in the 17th and 18th centuries was "sparrow grass," and it was only in the 19th century that literary usage revived the Latin spelling, "asparagus," so that the use of "sparrow grass" gradually became less and less common.

As sayings go, this is definitely a good one: asparagus cooks very quickly indeed! So if you are able to get something done faster than asparagus gets cooked, that means you've got just a couple of minutes to get the job done!

If you have never eaten fresh asparagus, you have missed out on one of the world's great vegetables. Here's a webpage with cooking tips for asparagus - there are many ways to cook asparagus and, of course, all of them are speedy!

Here is today's proverb read out loud: pretend you are the Emperor Augustus himself as you say it!

3036. Celerius quam asparagi coquuntur.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Pisces natare doces.

In English: You're teaching fish how to swim.

In other words, you are wasting your time - fish already know how to swim! This is an equal and opposite foolishness in comparison to yesterday's proverb about teaching a camel to dance. It is foolish to teach a camel to dance (camels don't dance) and it is foolish to teach fish to swim (they already know how).

If you put these two proverbs together, you realize how hard it is to be a teacher! When I was teaching in a traditional classroom setting, I felt desperately constrained by both of these possibilities. I would see, in one room, camels and fish. The range of interests and abilities in the classroom, and the requirement that I teach the students simultaneously, in the same place and at the same time, was beyond my abilities as a teacher.

Now, however, I teach online - and it is so much more satisfying. Teaching online, I can build learning activities that suit the individual students. Camels, fish - the more the merrier! The flexibility of an online class allows me to anticipate and accommodate an incredible range of student interests and abilities, without trying to come up with a "one-size-fits-all" classroom performance three times per week. The camels maybe are not learning how to dance, but they are learning things that camels want to learn, such as... hmmm... desert navigation! The fish, meanwhile, are learning not just to swim, but how to detect and evade the predators that are chasing after them as they skitter about the sea.

Although all classroom-based courses at my school are officially required to give a final exam, the online courses are exempt from this requirement. So, I am no longer required to give midterms and final examinations, but can instead base my grading on student projects, where the students choose their own topics, and publish their projects online so that they can learn from and admire the work of other students in the class, while developing a sense of pride and ownership in their own work.

So I can say: hurray for online learning! Hurray for camels and fish! If you are curious about how these online courses work, please feel free to browse around. Since the courses are online, you are welcome to come visit anytime. Here are links to the course websites: Mythology-Folklore, Indian Epics and World Literature.

And here is today's proverb read out loud:

1547. Pisces natare doces.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio. You can also hear this saying read aloud at a Polish website: Wladyslawa Kopalinskiego Slownik wyraz?w obcych i zwrot?w obcojezycznych (weblink); this version is about a fish, singular, as opposed to fish (plural).

Camelum saltare doces.

In English: You're teaching a camel to dance.

In other words: you are wasting your time. The camel was the creature in the ancient world who was proverbial for being ungainly, so teaching a camel to dance is therefore a waste of time.

This Latin saying reminds me of the English saying about the pig: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time, and it annoys the pig."

The poor camel who wants to dance but who looks ridiculous shows up in the Aesop's fable tradition, as in this fable about "The Monkey and The Camel" (from Aesop's Fables, Oxford University Press).

At the animal convention, the monkey got up and danced. He won great approval and was applauded by all. The camel was jealous and aspired to the same success so she also stood up and attempted to dance, making a complete fool of herself. The other animals grew angry and drove the camel away, beating her with clubs. This fable is appropriate for jealous people who try to rival their superiors.

In another Aesop's fable about camels and dancing, the camel acts more wisely and refuses to dance the "Pyrrhic," a famous Greek dance:

While he was out carousing, the owner of a camel ordered her to dance to the music of bronze cymbals and flutes. The camel refused and said "I am lucky just to walk down the road without being laughed at: dancing the Pyrrhic is out of the question!"

Curious about Greek and Roman dancing? You can read more online in the article entitled Saltatio in William Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities online.

Here is today's proverb read out loud:

1551. Camelum saltare doces.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Noli numerare pullos antequam nascuntur.

In English: Don't count the chicks before they are born.

Or, as we say more commonly in English, "don't count your chickens before they are hatched." I decided to include this proverb today in honor of the State Fair. We went up to the State Fair in Oklahoma City today and saw, in one of the exhibit halls, an "Egg Plant," where they had eggs, and chicks, and chickens, in order to teach children about farm production.

This is a famous proverb, even today, although I am not sure how many people know the fable that goes along with it. It's originally a fable from ancient India that then passed into the Arabic tradition, and thence into the European tradition during the Middle Ages. The story easily assimilated itself into the Aesop's fable tradition, even though it is not originally from Aesop. In his verse Fables, The French poet Jean de La Fontaine provides what has become the "standard" European version, about a milkmaid: The Milkmaid and the Pot of Milk. The milkmaid was making her way to town, balancing a pot of milk on her head. She thought about how she would sell the milk and buy a hundred eggs, and she could then sell the chickens to buy a pig, whom she would fatten up and sell in order to buy a calf and cow, and she imagined how the calf would leap about in the field, and then she herself leaped, and as she leaped, she spilt the milk and ended up with nothing.

The ancient Indian version is usually about a man rather than a woman. The man has a pot of oil, which he has carefully placed on a shelf above his head. He is going to take the oil to the market and sell it, whereupon he will buy sheep, and he will care for the sheep and they will have lambs, and when the flock became large enough, he would be able to take a wife, and then he would have a son, but the son would misbehave and, by God, he would beat that boy and teach him a lesson - whereupon the man lifts up his cane as if to beat the boy, and in doing so he bangs the cane into the jar and it spills the oil all over him.

So: don't count your chickens before they are hatched, especially if it means you are going to spill the milk or break the pot of oil as a result! These kinds of stories are the pessimistic (realistic?) counterpoint to the news story, quickly taking on all the qualities of a mythical tale, about the man who parlayed his one red paperclip into a house by a series of deft trades. You can read more about that mass media fairy tale at Kyle McDonald's blog: One Red Paperclip.

And if you are looking at all the paperclips lying there on your desk right at this moment, thinking how you might turn them into houses, do keep today's proverb in mind! :-)

And here is today's proverb read out loud:

3038. Noli numerare pullos antequam nascuntur.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Hectora quis nosset, si felix Troia fuisset?

In English: Who would know Hector, if Troy had been happy?

Like yesterday's proverb, today's proverb is a contrary-to-fact conditional statement: Who would know Hector (but of course everybody knows Hector, the great Trojan hero who was killed by Achilles), if Troy had been happy (but of course Troy ended very unhappily).

The form Hectora is a Greek accusative form. It's not unusual to find Greek words and word forms used in Latin, especially in Latin poetry - and this saying comes from a Latin poem by the poet Ovid. When he was sent into exile, Ovid wrote a collection of poems called the Tristia, "Sad Things," and this line is from a poem in Book IV, poem 3, of that collection.

In the poem, Ovid addresses his wife, lamenting his exile and asking for her support. Here is the passage where the reference to Hector is found:

nec tibi, quod saevis ego sum Iovis ignibus ictus,
purpureus molli fiat in ore pudor.
sed magis in curam nostri consurge tuendi,
exemplumque mihi coniugis esto bonae,
materiamque tuis tristem virtutibus imple:
ardua per praeceps gloria vadit iter.
Hectora quis nosset, si felix Troia fuisset?

Don't let there be the red blush of shame on your soft cheeks because I have been struck by the fierce lightning of Juppiter. Instead, rise up with a mind to defend me and be the model of a good wife to me. Let your virtues expand to fill this sad situation: glory ascends the heights by a precipitous path. Who would know Hector, if Troy had been happy?

Troy was singularly unhappy, of course, and despite the valiant efforts of Hector and the other Trojan heroes, the city fell to the Greeks and was destroyed. Homer's Iliad ends with Hector's funeral, and then Vergil's Aeneid provides an account of the actual fall and destruction of the city. We happen to be reading parts of the Aeneid this week in my Mythology and Folklore class. The students will see Hector's ghost appear to Aeneas, and they will meet Hector's widow, Andromache, in Chaonia.

The kind of heroism that Ovid invokes here is quite different from the heroic achievement of the anonymous sailor in yesterday's proverb. Hector is famous precisely because he failed; he is known precisely because of the tragedy of his failure.

Does Ovid really find that thought to be a comfort to him in his exile? I doubt it. The thought is posed in the form of a rhetorical question, and it's very easy to imagine a response along the lines of "It would have been better by far if no one heard of Hector, and Troy had remained forever happy."

Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud:

3448. Hectora quis nosset, si felix Troia fuisset?

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio. You can also hear this saying read aloud at a Polish website: Wladyslawa Kopalinskiego Slownik wyrazَw obcych i zwrotَw obcojezycznych (weblink).

Non mare transisset, pavidus si nauta fuisset.

In English: The sailor would not have crossed the sea, if he had been afraid.

This proverb makes it worth learning the Latin pluperfect subjunctive! The pluperfect subjunctive is most commonly found in past contrary-to-fact conditional statements, which is what we have today in the proverb: The sailor would not have crossed the sea (but he did cross the sea!) if he had been afraid (thank goodness, he wasn't afraid!).

This is a very inspiring proverb I think, since fear is something that usually threatens any sort of personal endeavour. It might be an endeavour as big as crossing the ocean, as in this proverb, or it might be something as small as going to a party (what if I don't know anybody? what if I say the wrong thing? etc.).

It seems very appropriate to have this proverb today since there is a special kind of sailor, nauta, who is up there in the sky right now: the astro-naut (star-sailor) Anousheh Ansari. Ansari is an American citizen who was born in Iran and she is wearing both the U.S. flag and the Iranian flag on her space-suit. You can read more about her at cnn.com: Ansari showed up in America as a teenager, helped to build a hugely successful telecommunications company, and was able to pay for the chance to travel to space. She is also funding a multimillion dollar prize to inspire the development suborbital spacecraft.

There's also a connection between the fearless sailor of today's proverb and William Strachey, the source for yesterday's proverb. William Strachey joined the Virginia Company of London in 1609, and while in their employ he was part of the "Sea Venture" expedition, a ship sailing to North America that became shipwrecked in Bermuda. William Strachey's account of this shipwreck seems to have provided William Shakespeare with some of the inspiration for this play The Tempest. You can read more about the wreck of the Sea Venture at wikipedia. The ship was caught in a hurricane. Imagine that: sailing across the ocean without any weather forecasting. We know now all too well what incredible destruction a hurricane can threaten, and it seems that the Sea Venture blundered straight into one. It's an absolutely extraordinary story. Stranded in Bermuda, the survivors managed to build two small ships which they used to sail to Virginia. They arrived to find the Virginia colony at Jamestown itself decimated by starvation and were preparing to rescue those survivors and sail to England when a relief ship arrived just as they were about to depart. Astonishing: I cannot believe no one has made a movie about this amazing set of adventures.

Now, don't get me wrong: I am beset by fears, like most people. I am not the sort of person like Anousheh Ansari or William Strachey, embarking on great trips across the seas of water or of space. Still, I treasure their stories and admire their fearlessness. It can be a source of inspiration in my own smaller endeavours!

Here is today's proverb read out loud:

3449. Non mare transisset, pavidus si nauta fuisset.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Alget qui non ardet.

In English: He grows cold who does not burn.

I was partly inspired to choose this proverb since today in Oklahoma we experienced our first cold front of fall, so the metaphor of cold and hot is worth pondering as we finally transition from the blazingly hot summer into the colder months of the year.

But what about this proverb; what is the moral or inspirational value of a statement like this? We know that it is a proverb that was used as a motto, as an exhortation. It appears, for example, on the title page of William Strachey's Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, published for the Colony of Virginia in 1612. The colony had been in existence for five years at that point, and the colonists had faced tremendous hardships thus far, nearly starving to death in the first years of the Jamestown settlement. By putting this motto on the cover of the book, Strachey wanted to convey a positive message to the colonists. The colonists needed to burn with an inner fire if they wanted to succeed and to survive. The cold that threatened them was not the cold of the physical environment around them, but the lack of inward passion. If people do not burn with an inner passion, they will grow cold, and will not prosper.

There is another motto on the book's cover page which admits even more directly how difficult life had proved for the colonists: Res nostrae subinde non sunt, quales quis optaret, sed quales esse possunt; "Our affairs thus far are not such as one might want, but they are such as they can be."

The Library of Congress has done an enormous public service by scanning this entire book (weblink) and digitizing the contents, which are all available online at the American Memory project. If you have a few minutes, you might want to take a look at this amazing historical document. This book was the law code for the colony, circa 1612, so there is a detailed listing (an incredibly detailed listing!) of all the possible crimes and their punishments. For example, bakers who pocketed a loaf of bread or who used any "deceitpfull tricke" to make the bread weigh more in order to keep the flour for their own use, would have their ears cut off! Ouch!

Latin proverbs are no longer a living part of our language, but they were a vital part of the literary language of England when Strachey wrote this book for the use of the Virginia Colony. If you take a look, you will see a fascinating blend of classical and Biblical references in this important document in American history. Kudos to the Library of Congress for making this document available for all of us to read online!

Here is today's proverb read out loud:

1502. Alget qui non ardet.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Vigilo et spero.

In English: I keep awake and I hope.

This is an extraordinarily simply Latin proverb, the sort of thing that can be taught on the first day of Latin class. The word "et" plus two simple first conjugation verbs.

The meaning, however, is profound. This is one of those proverbs where two parts are combined to create a greater whole.

To keep awake, to be "vigilant" (this English word comes from the same Latin verb), is a good thing.

It is also a good thing to be hopeful; you don't want to ever feel "desperate" (this English word comes from the same Latin verb, negated).

Yet it would be possible to keep awake without hope. This would be the staying awake that comes from worry, fear, anxiety.

It would also be possible to hope, but to be lazy about that, snoozing away every opportunity.

So: you must combine these two things! You must keep awake AND be hopeful. It is the combination of these two attitudes, expressed in this simple three-word proverb, that will help you accomplish great things in life!

This is definitely one of the Latin sayings that I consider to be one of my own personal mottoes!

Here is the proverb read out loud:

1028. Vigilo et spero.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi.

In English: What is permitted to Jove is not permitted to an ox.

Alas, English can never hope to capture the delightful rhyme which is, in a sense, the point of this Latin proverb. I guess we could try to say in English, "What is Jovine is not bovine." Alas, "Jovine" did not make it into the English vocabulary!

There is a nice English equivalent cited in wikipedia: "Gods may do what cattle may not."

This proverb follows up on yesterday's proverb about the crows getting off the hook, while the doves are punished.

There is something less cynical about today's proverb, however. A god and an ox are not the same, and they have different jobs in life. Jove wields the thunderbolt, while the ox bears the plough. If I had a choice, I guess it would be nice to be wielding the thunderbolt. I definitely find myself more at the ox-end of the spectrum!

Is there a subtext here of Jupiter's own amorous escapades? The lord of the gods disguised himself as a bull to carry off Europa, after all. (See, for example, this painting by Gustave Moreau, inspired by the story of Europa's abduction.) In that case, it seems that what is permitted to Jove is not permitted to the ox... but to Jove is permitted everything, from the world of gods and men and oxen alike!

Here is today's proverb read out loud - enjoy the rhyme!

1503. Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio. You can also hear this saying read aloud at a Polish website: Wladyslawa Kopalinskiego Slownik wyrazَw obcych i zwrotَw obcojezycznych (weblink). The Polish translation is lucky enough to have a very nice sound play between wol and woł, even if it does not rhyme: co wolno Jowiszowi, tego nie wolno wołowi.

Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas.

In English: The censor forgives the crows and harasses the doves.

This is a very elegant Latin saying that comes from the Roman poet Juvenal. Although the grammar is incredibly simple (nothing but simple first conjugation verbs here and simple first and second declension nouns), the criticism bites deeply. The crows are proverbial thieves, but they get off scot-free, while it is the peace-loving doves who are not left in peace.

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable lists a great English parallel saying: "One man may steal a horse, but another must not look over the hedge."

This is actually a problem I face as a teacher all the time. Because there are a few, just a few, students who cheat, we have to build a system which assumes that all students are potential cheaters - and this elaborate system is a burden for me, as the teacher, and it's a burden for the honest students as well! Moreover, I'm not convinced that it really catches the students who are intent on cheating. It just compels them to become more skilled at cheating.

I'm also cynical enough about the legal system to believe your likelihood of proving your case in court is not determined so much by your innocence, but by your ability to hire yourself a fancy lawyer. The crows can no doubt afford some fancy lawyers, when the poor doves cannot.

Meanwhile, on the international stage, consider this item from the New York Times today about the latest antics in Saddam Hussein's trial:

September 14 2006. New York Times.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The chief judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial said Thursday that he does not believe Saddam was a dictator. Judge Abdullah al-Amiri made the remark in a friendly exchange with the deposed leader, a day after the prosecution said the judge should step down because he is biased toward the defense.
Saddam and his co-defendants are being tried on charges of committing atrocities against Kurds in northern Iraq nearly two decades ago.
Questioning a Kurdish witness Thursday, Saddam said, ''I wonder why this man wanted to meet with me, if I am a dictator?''
The judge interrupted: ''You were not a dictator. People around you made you (look like) a dictator.''
''Thank you,'' Saddam responded, bowing his head in respect.

I would love it if we could have the Roman poet Juvenal covering that trial! He would have some biting commentary to offer on all sides, I am sure.

And here is today's proverb read out loud:

1091. Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Cogito, ergo sum.

In English: I think, therefore I am.

This is one of the most famous sayings in Latin; I would guess it is one people easily recognize even today. Unlike the proverbs I've discussed in the past couple of days, there is no special sound play or word play at work in this proverb. Instead, it is the simple and straight-forward Latin version of Descartes's philosophical statement in French, Je pense, donc je suis. You can read more about Descartes and his philosophy at wikipedia.

The reason I felt compelled to include this particular proverb is that at our Harrius Potter reading group last week, someone told a very funny joke about this. This is a joke that I had not heard before, although quite a few people in the group had heard it. Apologies to those of you for whom this is already an old, old joke!

One evening René Descartes went to relax at his local Starbucks. The barista smiled and said, "Ah, good evening, Monsieur Descartes! Will you have the usual?" The philosopher was in the mood for something new, something exciting, some entirely new coffee experience! So he looked at the barista and said in reply, "Hmmm... I think not..." - and promptly vanished!

Ha! I often contend that proverbs have a lot in common with magical spells and incantations, ritual words that exert an actual effect on reality. So: watch out! Be careful how you use or misuse the proverbs, even unintentionally!

Meanwhile, if you are curious about the rather mysterious Latin word cogito, I have some notes up about that in an entry at the Bestiaria Latina blog. It's a shame that English did not whole-heartedly adopt this Latin word. You will find the word "cogitation" in the English dictionary, but it's not much in use. Too bad: I kind of like the sound of "I cogitate, therefore I am!"

Last but not least, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1029. Cogito, ergo sum.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio. You can also hear this saying read aloud at a Polish website: Wladyslawa Kopalinskiego Slownik wyrazَw obcych i zwrotَw obcojezycznych (weblink).

Dum spiramus, speramus.

In English: While we breathe, we hope.

Like yesterday's proverb about ferit-perit, today's saying depends on a lovely little play on words in Latin that is impossible to translate directly into English. The words spiramus and speramus differ only by a single vowel, and this similarity in sound reinforces the meaning of the proverb: to breathe, spirare, is to hope, sperare.

In a modified form, this proverb provides the state motto of South Carolina: Dum spiro, spero; While I breathe, I hope.

In English, we have many words which are derived from the Latin root spir-. Some of these are words related to physical breathing (respiration, aspirated, etc.), while other words are related to the breath as the mysterious force of life itself. The word "spirit," for example, comes from this root.

There are not so many English words which derive from the Latin word spes, meaning "hope," and sperare, "to hope." There are, however, two words which provide both sides of the hope-coin, so to speak. On the one hand, there is despair (desperation, etc.), which is from the Latin word desperare, to be "out of hope." Yet there is also prosper (prosperous, prosperity, etc.), which is from the Latin prosperare, to "make somebody happy, to bestow hope." This is not a very commonly used word in English, with the exception of the Vulcan greeting known to all Trekkies: Live long and prosper.

So if we wanted to come up with an English version of this saying that tried to echo the Latin word play, we could say: "With every respiration, we feel no desperation." Yeah, I know. Translation is a DOOMED enterprise. So instead of worrying too much about the English, just file the Latin away for future reference - it's easy to remember, precisely because of the word play: Dum spiramus, speramus.

And here is today's proverb read out loud:

1035. Dum spiramus, speramus.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio. You can also hear this saying read aloud at a Polish website: Władysława Kopalińskiego Słownik wyrazów obcych i zwrotów obcojęzycznych (weblink). Note the GENIUS Polish rendering: póki tchu, póty otuchy. Nice!

Qui gladio ferit, gladio perit.

In English: He who wounds by the sword, dies by the sword.

I thought this would be a good proverb to post for today: September 11 is the five-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and it is also, more hopefully, the 100-year anniversary of Gandhi's proclamation of satyagraha, or non-violent resistance. For more about this, there is an online interview with Gandhi's son: Satyagraha 100 Years Later: Gandhi Launches Modern Non-Violent Resistance Movement on Sept. 11, 1906. You can also read more about Gandhi and about satyagraha at Wikipedia.

The Latin saying, with its powerful parallelism between gladio ferit and gladio perit, is based on a saying in the Vulgate, or Latin Bible. On the night that Jesus is arrested, there is a confrontation between his followers and the men who have come to arrest him. Each of the four gospels represents this scene quite differently in its details.

In Matthew 26, an unnamed follower of Jesus draws his sword and cuts off the ear of a servant of the high priest. Jesus then says to him: Converte gladium tuum in locum suum. Omnes enim, qui acceperint gladium, gladio peribunt. ("Return your sword to its place, for all who will take up the sword, will die by the sword.") This is the Biblical saying that is closest to the proverbial Qui gladio ferit, gladio perit.

In Mark 14, an unnamed follower of Jesus draws a sword and cuts off an ear of the servant of the high priest, but Jesus does not say anything to him about this.

In Luke 22, not one but several of Jesus's followers draw their swords, and ask him if they should attack: dixerunt ei Domine si percutimus in gladio ("they ask if, 'Lord, do we strike with the sword?'") One of this group then cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant. At that point, Jesus says to them, Sinite usque huc. This is a rather odd phrase in Latin, and it follows the Greek,which is also rather odd, word for word. It seems to mean something like: "Leave off; enough already." Jesus then heals the man's ear.

In John 18, it is Peter who draws the sword and cuts off the servant's ear. The text also adds that the name of this servant was Malchus. Jesus then tells Peter, Mitte gladium in vaginam ("Put the sword into its sheath.")

As you can see, we owe to the author of Matthew's gospel the basic idea behind this proverb, but the actual Latin saying was coined in response to the gospel text; it is not a direct quote. In the same way that the Latin saying is based on a play on words in Latin (ferit-perit), the English saying "he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword" is also based on a play on words (lives-dies).

The saying "he who lives by the sword dies by sword" has always meant a lot to me in terms of how I imagined Jesus and his message. To me, this sounds like a profound expression of karma, the law of the consequences of action. Violence has violent consequences; if you use violence, it brings more violence into the world. Conclusion: do not use violence!

Yet I am not sure if this is the only way that these words would be understood in the tradition of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. Consider, for example, this passage from the Apocalypse of John, chapter 13: Qui in captivitatem in captivitatem vadit qui in gladio occiderit oportet eum gladio occidi, "He that (leads others) into captivity goes into captivity; it is fitting that he who will have killed with the sword be killed with the sword."

This sentiment in turn recalls a passage in Genesis 9: Quicumque effuderit humanum sanguinem fundetur sanguis illius, "Whosoever shall have spilled human blood, his blood will be poured out." Unlike the words of Jesus reported in Matthew, to me this sounds much more like an endorsement of capital punishment: if someone commits murder, he should be executed.

So: is the saying "he who lives by sword, dies by the sword," a plea for peace, or is it actually an endorsement of capital punishment? To be honest, I always took it to be a profound plea for peace, and never thought of it in any other way, until I looked at these other Bible passages... What do you think?

Here is today's proverb read out loud:

2242. Qui gladio ferit, gladio perit.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

Maximae divitiae non desiderare divitias.

In English: The greatest wealth is not to desire wealth.

Grammatically, this is a very simple proverb. It's the kind of proverb that can be taught in the first week or so of a Latin class: it contains only first declension nouns and adjectives (maximae divitiae, divitias) and a first conjugation infinitive (desiderare). Sometimes the saying is presented in a slightly different form, something like a riddle: Quae sunt maximae divitiae? non desiderare divitias. In English: "What is the greatest wealth? Not to desire wealth."

Grammatically simple in either case - but very profound in its meaning. It is essentially a paradox: how can you get wealth by not wanting it? There are two different ways to understand that, one far more radical than the other.

Less radical: People who are maniacally greedy for money will not succeed, but those people who do not have a maniacal greed will prosper. You can indeed meet people who are financially successful, prosperous and content - they do well in the world because they approach the world of business and the getting of wealth with equanimity and do not lose their heads. They conduct their business honestly and treat their fellow workers, their customers, and even their competitors with respect. Their goal is usually to accomplish something that is not completely profit-oriented, and because of their goals and their commitment to quality, they end up being blessed with material success.

More radical: The paradox expressed in this proverb reveals a fundamental mistake at the heart of our society: we have confused financial wealth (divitiae) with our true well-being (maximae divitiae). Personally, I tend to think this is the case. What confuses me, though, is how on earth we got so far off-track, how we got a society that puts the most extraordinary premium on financial wealth, as if this were not somehow extraodinarily foolish. I watched with dismay last week, for example, all the hoopla surrounding the promotion of Katie Couric to the evening news. They spent 10 million dollars plastering her name on all the buses of New York for publicity and I heard that her annual salary is 15 million dollars, which translates into roughly $3000 per minute of news broadcast time. How on earth did we end up with such absurdity? This is a very big problem - just throwing proverbs at a situation like that will not change it. I'm guessing that if we really are going to try to get out of the money pit we have dug for ourselves, we have to understand why on earth we dug that pit for ourselves in the first place. And I am not sure why we did that.

Hmm....

So: here is today's proverb read out loud. This is a case where reading out loud can really clarify the meaning of the proverb. There needs to be a slight pause between the subject (maximae divitiae) and the predicate (non desiderare divitias). It would not be correct to put a comma there to indicate the pause, but if you do not recognize that there is a pause there, it is hard to follow the meaning of the sentence. This is often the case when the verb "is" has been left out of a Latin sentence (which is what generally happens to the poor little "est" in Latin!).

1037. Maximae divitiae non desiderare divitias.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Hic mortui vivunt, hic muti loquuntur.

In English: Here the dead live; here the mute speak.

This is a "riddling" type of saying. Can you guess where "here" would be...?

Here is IN THE LIBRARY. This is a saying that is often found inscribed on library buildings.

Thanks to the magic of the written word, in the library the dead live on, and although mute, they are able to speak to us through their books. A variant form of this saying is Hic mortui vivunt, hic muti magistri loquuntur, "Here the dead live; here the mute masters speak." Or: Hic mortui vivunt, pandunt oracula muti, "Here the dead live; here the mute reveal oracles."

All teachers and students of Latin are deeply moved, I think, by the way that the words of a dead language can still speak to us, thanks to their survival in written form. There is an intense thrill when you have the distinct feeling that a text is speaking, really speaking to you, conveying ideas and feelings, an awareness of the world that one person - long dead - is sharing with you over the chasm of time.

At the same time, I worry a lot about the dangers of silent reading. If we really want the mute to speak to us through their writing, shouldn't we read their writing out loud, and give voice to their words? To read without reading out loud is only a partial reading. I hope very much that by providing the audio with these proverbs, I can inspire you to read Latin out loud! When you use your own voice to sound out the words you are able to give them an intonation, to hear the poetry, to appreciate the word order and the sound play - things you will often miss out on completely when you read the words silently.

For more on this topic, please read the masterful essay by William Harris: The Sin of Silent Reading. I agree absolutely with Harris's advice to all Latin students and teachers: "Always read Latin aloud, don't be afraid of making mistakes, just roar it out and take pleasure in the sound of the spoken Latin words."

So here is today's proverb read out loud - I hope it will inspire you to read some Latin out loud yourself - loudly! The words need your voice, if the mute really are going to speak again.

3034. Hic mortui vivunt, hic muti loquuntur.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

Welcome to Latin Audio Proverbs!

To subscribe to this blog, use this FeedBurner Blog Service. It will help you to subscribe using the most common types of blog readers - and if you are not sure just what it means to subscribe to a blog, the FeedBurner folks do a nice job of explaining how it works, so that you can choose a good blog reader and get started.

And why not start a Latin Proverb blog of your own? Blogger.com is free, and easy to use! One of the recommendations I made for Latin students using the Latin Via Proverbs book is to create a "commonplace book," where they can record their favorite proverbs, along with their own thoughts and reflections. Below you can read an excerpt from the preface to Latin Via Proverbs where I explain something about the purpose that commonplace books served in the past, and how they can be useful for Latin students today. I've created this Latin Audio Proverb blog as my own experiment with a "commonplace book," and I hope this will inspire other fans of Latin to create their own blogs. Come on, people, we need more Latin blogs!

I'll be publishing a Latin proverb each day here, along with a nifty little Flash audio feature that should make it easy for people to hear the audio. I have really struggled with audio in the past, finding it very difficult to manage the plethora of file formats, browser options, and media players that are floating around the virtual world. This Flash option should make it possible for people to listen to the audio easily and unobtrusively. This is also the same approach I am taking to the audio content at the LatinViaProverbs.com website.

Here's the blurb about commonplace books from the preface to Latin Via Proverbs:

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Study Tip: Create a Commonplace Book

To keep track of your progress with the proverbs, you might want to create a “commonplace book” where you record the proverbs in Latin, along with your thoughts and reflections in English. You can include every single proverb if you want, or you can just include the proverbs that you find the most intriguing, either because you agree with them strongly (or disagree with them), or because there is some stylistic or grammatical feature in the proverb that interests you.

The commonplace book genre became widely popular in the Renaissance, when the recent advent of printing resulted in a veritable “information explosion” rather like what we are experiencing in a new way today with the Internet. In order to cope with the flood of printed information they were reading, students and scholars would keep a “commonplace book” where they would record key passages from their reading (these passages were the loci communes, or “common places”), along with their own reflections and commentary. Another term used for such a collection is florilegium, “gathering of flowers.” From the corresponding Greek term, anthologia, we get the English word “anthology.”

There are many ways to create your own commonplace book or florilegium. You might organize it as a diary, adding at least one proverb every day. Or you could organize the book by topics, such as “proverbs about love,” “proverbs about money,” etc., with separate pages for each topic. You can use a physical notebook, writing the proverbs out by hand (splurge and buy yourself a nice journal to write in!), or you can create your notebook electronically, using a word processor. You might even consider creating your commonplace book online, as a “proverb blog.” There are free blogging services you can use to create your proverb blog, such as Google’s blogger.com. Whatever format you choose, make sure you write about the proverbs often. Writing one entry, no matter how brief, each and every day is the best way to reinforce your growing knowledge of Latin.