In English: The year brings the yield, not the field.
Well, for once, the English version of this saying has a nice touch that is lacking in the Latin: the English rhymes (yield-field), while the Latin has only alliteration to rely on (annus-ager). You can find the saying in Erasmus's Adagia, 1.1.44. Erasmus includes this variation, also with alliteration: Annus producit fructum, non arvum, "The year yields the fruit, not the field." Erasmus also provides a nice extended metaphorical application of the proverb, arguing that it is education, not birth, which yields virtuous character: ad virtutem educationem longe plus adferre momenti, quam genus, "one's education is of far more importance in contributing to virtue than one's lineage." As a teacher, of course I agree with that one, too!
I wanted to choose a proverb today in honor of the New Year that is about to begin. I am a fan of the changing of the year. I suppose, in fact, that it is my favorite holiday. This year, I will get to celebrate it twice! Once, at 7 PM (that is midnight in Scotland) with some friends who have to get up very early in the morning to go to work and who cannot celebrate at midnight E.S.T. So, after our celebration on Scottish time, we will then have another celebration for the arrival of the New Year on the east coast of the U.S. As for Scotland, you might check out the Latin translation of the Scottish song, Auld Lang Syne, which I've posted at Andrew Reinhard's eClassics ning website.
The message of today's proverb is a very positive one for the coming New Year and for the passage of time. Of course, the field where you do your planting is important, and you do have to sow the seeds... but be patient: even the best field and the best seeds will not give you a harvest over night. Instead, you have to let time work its magic: annus producit, non ager.
With the new year comes the new semester, so I'll be taking new week off from blogging in order to get my courses ready for Spring 2008 (for those of you who don't know, my real job has nothing to do with Latin - I teach online courses in Myth-Folklore, World Literature and Indian Epics at the University of Oklahoma).
So, I'll see you again here a week from today. For now, Happy New Year, and here is today's proverb read out loud:
1613. Annus producit, non ager.
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.
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December 30, 2007
December 26, 2007
Improbe Neptunum accusat qui iterum naufragium facit.
In English: The man who shipwrecks a second time unjustly accuses Neptune.
I thought this proverb would be a good one to include today as people begin the process of getting ready for those New Year's Resolutions, pondering what things you might have done wrong this year in order to try to get them right next year. As today's proverb reminds us, making a serious mistake once is something you might be able to explain away, blaming your first shipwreck on Neptune, the god of the seas. The second time around, however, you cannot just blame Neptune: you are going to have to take some responsibility for yourself.
An English saying with a similar message is "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." I always hear that particular English proverb with a Scottish accent since I remember learning it as a child when it was using by Scottie on Star Trek! Thanks to the bizarre miracle that is Wikipedia, you can read all about that particular episode of Star Trek here, including a reference to this particular proverb and its role in the show (the character Chekhov claims it is an old Russian saying, of course!).
The Latin saying, meanwhile, is one found in Publilius Syrus. I was also delighted to find the saying included in this book by the great English poet Edmund Spenser (1552 – 1599), The Shepheardes Calender, which is available online, thanks to the University of Oregon. Here is the Renaissance English version of the saying: "The soueraigne of seas he blames in vaine, / That once seabeate, will to sea againe." The book even includes a Renaissance "Glosse" to aid the reader, citing the Latin saying from Publilius (who is here referred to by his professional calling, Mimus, rather than to his identity as a Syrian, Syrus): "The soueraigne of Seas is Neptune the God of the seas. The saying is borrowed of Mimus Publianus, which vsed this prouerb in a verse. Improbe Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit."
The Latin saying also makes its way into a work by Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), based on Publilius, under the delightful title, Ornamenta Rationalia, or Elegant Sentences: "He accuseth Neptune unjustly, who makes shipwreck a second time."
Not surprisingly, the saying shows up in Erasmus's Adagia, even if it is not one of the headings; this inclusion of the saying in Erasmus, attributed to "Mimus Publianus," was probably a key element in its Renaissance success. Erasmus locates the saying under the heading, Iterum eundem ad lapidem offendere, "To stumble twice against the same rock." In other words: it is your own fault to stumble twice over the same thing!
So, hoping you enjoy smooth sailing and no stumbling as we draw near here to the end of 2007, here is today's proverb read out loud:
2024. Improbe Neptunum accusat qui iterum naufragium facit.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
I thought this proverb would be a good one to include today as people begin the process of getting ready for those New Year's Resolutions, pondering what things you might have done wrong this year in order to try to get them right next year. As today's proverb reminds us, making a serious mistake once is something you might be able to explain away, blaming your first shipwreck on Neptune, the god of the seas. The second time around, however, you cannot just blame Neptune: you are going to have to take some responsibility for yourself.
An English saying with a similar message is "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." I always hear that particular English proverb with a Scottish accent since I remember learning it as a child when it was using by Scottie on Star Trek! Thanks to the bizarre miracle that is Wikipedia, you can read all about that particular episode of Star Trek here, including a reference to this particular proverb and its role in the show (the character Chekhov claims it is an old Russian saying, of course!).
The Latin saying, meanwhile, is one found in Publilius Syrus. I was also delighted to find the saying included in this book by the great English poet Edmund Spenser (1552 – 1599), The Shepheardes Calender, which is available online, thanks to the University of Oregon. Here is the Renaissance English version of the saying: "The soueraigne of seas he blames in vaine, / That once seabeate, will to sea againe." The book even includes a Renaissance "Glosse" to aid the reader, citing the Latin saying from Publilius (who is here referred to by his professional calling, Mimus, rather than to his identity as a Syrian, Syrus): "The soueraigne of Seas is Neptune the God of the seas. The saying is borrowed of Mimus Publianus, which vsed this prouerb in a verse. Improbe Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit."
The Latin saying also makes its way into a work by Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), based on Publilius, under the delightful title, Ornamenta Rationalia, or Elegant Sentences: "He accuseth Neptune unjustly, who makes shipwreck a second time."
Not surprisingly, the saying shows up in Erasmus's Adagia, even if it is not one of the headings; this inclusion of the saying in Erasmus, attributed to "Mimus Publianus," was probably a key element in its Renaissance success. Erasmus locates the saying under the heading, Iterum eundem ad lapidem offendere, "To stumble twice against the same rock." In other words: it is your own fault to stumble twice over the same thing!
So, hoping you enjoy smooth sailing and no stumbling as we draw near here to the end of 2007, here is today's proverb read out loud:
2024. Improbe Neptunum accusat qui iterum naufragium facit.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
December 23, 2007
Nulla sine sole umbra
In English: There is no shadow without the sun.
I was prompted to include this proverb today because of the winter solstice yesterday, and the secular HumanLight holiday which takes place today, December 23, in conjunction with the solstice. Today's proverb is about the perpetual interplay between light and dark which is marked in such a profound way at the winter solstice, when the sun seems to stop receding from us in the sky: the longest night of year arrives, and from here until the summer solstice, the daylight will grow longer and longer with each passing day.
I especially like the way this simple proverb provokes us to think metaphorically: when we see a shadow, darkness, the form of the absence of light, instead of thinking about that shadow as a thing in itself, we should think about the fact that it was cast by light, by sunlight in particular, if we are looking at a shadow out of doors.
Metaphorically, this is something that points in many different directions: the interplay between death and life, between insight and blindness, between good and evil, and so on.
As you might expect, this motto is one that is found inscribed on sundials. From this magnificent list of sundial mottoes, here are some others based on the idea of "nothing without the sun (or the shadow)" as in today's saying:
NIHIL SINE SOLE: nothing without the sun
QUID SINE SOLE? NIHIL: what (is there) without the sun? nothing
SINE LUMINE NIHIL: without the light, nothing
NIL NISI CAELESTI RADIO: nothing, unless by the heavenly beam
SINE UMBRA NIHIL: without the shadow, nothing
CUM UMBRA NIHIL, SINE UMBRA NIHIL: with the shadow, nothing, without the shadow nothing [quite a lovely brain-teasing paradox!]
I especially like the ones where the sundial itself is made to speak, as here:
SINE SOLE NIHIL SUM: without the sun, I am nothing
NIHIL NISI SOL MIHI: there's nothing for me unless there is sun
PHOEBO ABSENTE NIL SUM: when Phoebus is absent, I am nothing
SINE SOLE NIHIL SUM, SINE DEO TU NIHIL POTES: without the sun I am nothing; without God you can do nothing
SINE SOLE EGO, TU SINE FIDE NIHIL POSSUMUS FACERE: I without the sun, you without faith, can do nothing
So, hoping your mixture of sun and shadow meets your needs today, here is today's proverb read out loud:
353. Nulla sine sole umbra.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
I was prompted to include this proverb today because of the winter solstice yesterday, and the secular HumanLight holiday which takes place today, December 23, in conjunction with the solstice. Today's proverb is about the perpetual interplay between light and dark which is marked in such a profound way at the winter solstice, when the sun seems to stop receding from us in the sky: the longest night of year arrives, and from here until the summer solstice, the daylight will grow longer and longer with each passing day.
I especially like the way this simple proverb provokes us to think metaphorically: when we see a shadow, darkness, the form of the absence of light, instead of thinking about that shadow as a thing in itself, we should think about the fact that it was cast by light, by sunlight in particular, if we are looking at a shadow out of doors.
Metaphorically, this is something that points in many different directions: the interplay between death and life, between insight and blindness, between good and evil, and so on.
As you might expect, this motto is one that is found inscribed on sundials. From this magnificent list of sundial mottoes, here are some others based on the idea of "nothing without the sun (or the shadow)" as in today's saying:
NIHIL SINE SOLE: nothing without the sun
QUID SINE SOLE? NIHIL: what (is there) without the sun? nothing
SINE LUMINE NIHIL: without the light, nothing
NIL NISI CAELESTI RADIO: nothing, unless by the heavenly beam
SINE UMBRA NIHIL: without the shadow, nothing
CUM UMBRA NIHIL, SINE UMBRA NIHIL: with the shadow, nothing, without the shadow nothing [quite a lovely brain-teasing paradox!]
I especially like the ones where the sundial itself is made to speak, as here:
SINE SOLE NIHIL SUM: without the sun, I am nothing
NIHIL NISI SOL MIHI: there's nothing for me unless there is sun
PHOEBO ABSENTE NIL SUM: when Phoebus is absent, I am nothing
SINE SOLE NIHIL SUM, SINE DEO TU NIHIL POTES: without the sun I am nothing; without God you can do nothing
SINE SOLE EGO, TU SINE FIDE NIHIL POSSUMUS FACERE: I without the sun, you without faith, can do nothing
So, hoping your mixture of sun and shadow meets your needs today, here is today's proverb read out loud:
353. Nulla sine sole umbra.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
December 21, 2007
Endymionis somnum dormit
In English: He's sleeping the sleep of Endymion.
One of the nice pleasures of the winter academic break is getting a chance to sleep in. After all, the longest night of the year is just around the corner this weekend: a perfect excuse for a good long sleep. That's why I've decided to include the proverbial sleep of Endymion as today's saying. The saying is based on a famous myth, and is included in Erasmus's Adagia, 2.357.
The story goes that Endymion was a Greek shepherd. The Greek moon goddess, Selene, fell in love with Endymion because of his captivating physical beauty. She begged Zeus (who was Endymion's father in some versions of the story) to grant him eternal youth so that she could enjoy his beauty forever. Zeus agreed to do this by putting Endymion into an eternal sleep so that the moon, Selene, could gaze upon him endlessly from her post in the night sky.
You can see that this story has something in common with the story of the dawn goddess, Aurora (Eos in Greek). Aurora was also in love with a mortal, the prince of Troy named Tithonus. Wanting to keep him alive forever, Aurora begged Zeus to make Tithonus immortal. She failed, however, to ask him to keep Tithonus young. Zeus agreed to her request, and poor Tithonus lived on and on and on, eventually becoming so shriveled up that he turned into a grasshopper. You can read the sad story of Tithonus in this poem by Tennyson.
Just as Tithonus remained alive as a myth in the modern imagination, the same is true for Endymion! Here, for example, is a lovely passage from the great American essayist, Henry David Thoreau, in his essay Days and Nights in Concord in which he describes a walk by moonlight; the reference to Endymion comes at the very end of the passage:
So, hoping that all of you are enjoying good rest, for whatever reasons, during the holiday break, here is today's proverb read out loud:
2100. Endymionis somnum dormit.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
One of the nice pleasures of the winter academic break is getting a chance to sleep in. After all, the longest night of the year is just around the corner this weekend: a perfect excuse for a good long sleep. That's why I've decided to include the proverbial sleep of Endymion as today's saying. The saying is based on a famous myth, and is included in Erasmus's Adagia, 2.357.
The story goes that Endymion was a Greek shepherd. The Greek moon goddess, Selene, fell in love with Endymion because of his captivating physical beauty. She begged Zeus (who was Endymion's father in some versions of the story) to grant him eternal youth so that she could enjoy his beauty forever. Zeus agreed to do this by putting Endymion into an eternal sleep so that the moon, Selene, could gaze upon him endlessly from her post in the night sky.
You can see that this story has something in common with the story of the dawn goddess, Aurora (Eos in Greek). Aurora was also in love with a mortal, the prince of Troy named Tithonus. Wanting to keep him alive forever, Aurora begged Zeus to make Tithonus immortal. She failed, however, to ask him to keep Tithonus young. Zeus agreed to her request, and poor Tithonus lived on and on and on, eventually becoming so shriveled up that he turned into a grasshopper. You can read the sad story of Tithonus in this poem by Tennyson.
Just as Tithonus remained alive as a myth in the modern imagination, the same is true for Endymion! Here, for example, is a lovely passage from the great American essayist, Henry David Thoreau, in his essay Days and Nights in Concord in which he describes a walk by moonlight; the reference to Endymion comes at the very end of the passage:
I come out into the moonlit night where men are not, as if into a scenery, anciently deserted by men; the life of men is like a dream. It is three thousand years since night has had possession. Go forth and hear the crickets chirp at midnight. Hear if their dynasty is not an ancient one and well founded. I feel the antiquity of the night; she merely repossesses herself of her realms, as if her dynasty were uninterrupted, or she had underlain the day. No sounds but the steady creaking of crickets, and the occasional crowing of cocks. I go by the farmer's houses and barns, standing there in the dim light under the trees, as if they lay at an immense distance, or under a veil. The farmer and his oxen are all asleep, not even a watch-dog is awake. The human slumbers; there is less of man in the world. To appreciate the moonlight, you must stand in the shade and see where a few rods or a few feet distant it falls in between the trees. It is a "milder day," made for some inhabitants whom you do not see. I am obliged to sleep enough the next night to make up for it (after being out)—. Endymionis somnum dormire — to sleep an Endymion's sleep, as the ancients expressed it.So, while Thoreau was out walking by the moonlight late at night and hence obliged to sleep the next day, I will confess that I was up until the wee hours last night playing ping pong (the ping pong table a Christmas present from my husband, who likes to play, too!). Just like Thoreau's lovely midnight foray into the world, late-night ping pong can also lead to the sleep of Endymion the next day!
So, hoping that all of you are enjoying good rest, for whatever reasons, during the holiday break, here is today's proverb read out loud:
2100. Endymionis somnum dormit.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
December 16, 2007
Quasi nix tabescit dies
In English: Like snow, the day melts away.
I thought I would do a proverb about "snow" in honor of the winter weather that has beset so many people in the past days. You can find this saying in the playwright Plautus.
The comparison is introduced with quasi, literally "as-if" - and, of course, the word "quasi" has become an English word in its own right. Just like snow, the day (or time itself, if you prefer), seems to melt away, tabescit. This Latin word, tabescit, has more negative connotations than the English word "melt." In Latin, tabes was the fluid resulting from putrefaction, so this simile manages to suggest that the day as it melts or decays is part of the inevitable decay of the world, a mortal corruption something like the corruption of the body, in addition to being as inevitable as the melting of the snow.
Here is another simile about the melting snow, this time from one of the Heroides of the poet Ovid: More nivis lacrimae sole madentis eunt, "In the manner of melting snow in the sun, my tears flow." These are the words that the grieving Laodamia writes to her husband Protesilaus, who has departed for the Trojan war. Her tears are justified, for Protesilaus was to be the first of the Greeks to set foot on Trojan soil and thus doomed to be the first of the Greeks to die in battle. You can read more of the story of Protesilaus and Laodamia at wikipedia.
Of course, the melting snow is usually not an occasion for somber reflections or tears; instead, people are usually glad when the ice melts and the snows recede, so of course there are some happier similes in the Latin poets as well. For example, in the Ars Amatoria, Ovid writes: ut fragilis glacies, interit ira mora, "like the brittle ice, anger disappears after a time." I like very much the idea that anger is something that will just melt away like ice although, to be honest, regardless of Ovid's simile here, anger feels to me more like a fire that will feed on anything at all until it has destroyed everything around it!
Perhaps the most famous "melting snow" line from Latin poetry would be this bit from one of the Odes of Horace: diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis / arboribus comae, "the snows have fled away and now the grass returns to the fields, the leaves to the trees."
So, in the assurance that spring will eventually supplant the snows of winter, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1941. Quasi nix tabescit dies.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
I thought I would do a proverb about "snow" in honor of the winter weather that has beset so many people in the past days. You can find this saying in the playwright Plautus.
The comparison is introduced with quasi, literally "as-if" - and, of course, the word "quasi" has become an English word in its own right. Just like snow, the day (or time itself, if you prefer), seems to melt away, tabescit. This Latin word, tabescit, has more negative connotations than the English word "melt." In Latin, tabes was the fluid resulting from putrefaction, so this simile manages to suggest that the day as it melts or decays is part of the inevitable decay of the world, a mortal corruption something like the corruption of the body, in addition to being as inevitable as the melting of the snow.
Here is another simile about the melting snow, this time from one of the Heroides of the poet Ovid: More nivis lacrimae sole madentis eunt, "In the manner of melting snow in the sun, my tears flow." These are the words that the grieving Laodamia writes to her husband Protesilaus, who has departed for the Trojan war. Her tears are justified, for Protesilaus was to be the first of the Greeks to set foot on Trojan soil and thus doomed to be the first of the Greeks to die in battle. You can read more of the story of Protesilaus and Laodamia at wikipedia.
Of course, the melting snow is usually not an occasion for somber reflections or tears; instead, people are usually glad when the ice melts and the snows recede, so of course there are some happier similes in the Latin poets as well. For example, in the Ars Amatoria, Ovid writes: ut fragilis glacies, interit ira mora, "like the brittle ice, anger disappears after a time." I like very much the idea that anger is something that will just melt away like ice although, to be honest, regardless of Ovid's simile here, anger feels to me more like a fire that will feed on anything at all until it has destroyed everything around it!
Perhaps the most famous "melting snow" line from Latin poetry would be this bit from one of the Odes of Horace: diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis / arboribus comae, "the snows have fled away and now the grass returns to the fields, the leaves to the trees."
So, in the assurance that spring will eventually supplant the snows of winter, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1941. Quasi nix tabescit dies.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
December 13, 2007
Nulla dies sine linea
In English: No day without a line.
The mastermind behind the wonderful blog Laudator Temporis Acti sent me a query about this proverb yesterday, and I thought I would take this occasion to write up some notes about it, since I always thought this should be the blogger's motto! I know that for me writing something each day in at least one of my blogs (even if it is just the blog of class announcements I keep for my online courses) has really changed my attitude about writing for the better, and greatly increased my productivity.
The saying is very famous in Latin, and is attested in medieval sources. The closest thing to a classical Latin source is this passage in Pliny: Apelli fuit alioqui perpetua consuetudo numquam tam occupatum diem agendi, ut non lineam ducendo exerceret artem, quod ab eo in proverbium venit "Apelles had in fact a regular custom that he never passed a day, no matter how busy, without practicing his art by drawing something (lineam ducendo), which has thus become a proverb." Apelles was a famous Greek painter in the fourth century B.C.E.; you can read more about him here at wikipedia.
The proverb is attested in the Greek collection by Arsenius, which is the version given by Erasmus in his Adages: Nullam hodie lineam duxi, "I have not drawn a line today." This is a rather negative version of the same idea; you should draw (or write) something everyday, and a day that passes without such an occasion is a lost day.
It's unfortunate that Erasmus chose to cite this Greek version of the saying, in such a negative form, when he might have cited the more positive exhortation, nulla dies sine linea. This version of the saying shows up in the Adagia compiled by Polydorus Vergilius, a contemporary of Erasmus. You can find an online edition of Polydorus's Adagia at the Herzog August Bibliothek, as well as a list of the proverb headings, listed alphabetically.
Finally, here is a medieval variant in metrical form: nulla dies abeat, qua linea ducta supersit / nec decet ignavum praeteriisse diem, "Let no day go by without a drawn line to show for it; it is not right for a day to pass by in sloth" (Walther 18894).
So this blog post will stand as my written "line" for today - along with a line of digital audio, too! Here is the proverb read out loud:
572. Nulla dies sine linea.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
The mastermind behind the wonderful blog Laudator Temporis Acti sent me a query about this proverb yesterday, and I thought I would take this occasion to write up some notes about it, since I always thought this should be the blogger's motto! I know that for me writing something each day in at least one of my blogs (even if it is just the blog of class announcements I keep for my online courses) has really changed my attitude about writing for the better, and greatly increased my productivity.
The saying is very famous in Latin, and is attested in medieval sources. The closest thing to a classical Latin source is this passage in Pliny: Apelli fuit alioqui perpetua consuetudo numquam tam occupatum diem agendi, ut non lineam ducendo exerceret artem, quod ab eo in proverbium venit "Apelles had in fact a regular custom that he never passed a day, no matter how busy, without practicing his art by drawing something (lineam ducendo), which has thus become a proverb." Apelles was a famous Greek painter in the fourth century B.C.E.; you can read more about him here at wikipedia.
The proverb is attested in the Greek collection by Arsenius, which is the version given by Erasmus in his Adages: Nullam hodie lineam duxi, "I have not drawn a line today." This is a rather negative version of the same idea; you should draw (or write) something everyday, and a day that passes without such an occasion is a lost day.
It's unfortunate that Erasmus chose to cite this Greek version of the saying, in such a negative form, when he might have cited the more positive exhortation, nulla dies sine linea. This version of the saying shows up in the Adagia compiled by Polydorus Vergilius, a contemporary of Erasmus. You can find an online edition of Polydorus's Adagia at the Herzog August Bibliothek, as well as a list of the proverb headings, listed alphabetically.
Finally, here is a medieval variant in metrical form: nulla dies abeat, qua linea ducta supersit / nec decet ignavum praeteriisse diem, "Let no day go by without a drawn line to show for it; it is not right for a day to pass by in sloth" (Walther 18894).
So this blog post will stand as my written "line" for today - along with a line of digital audio, too! Here is the proverb read out loud:
572. Nulla dies sine linea.
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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December 09, 2007
In idem flumen bis non descendimus
In English: We do not go down into the same river twice.
Tomorrow is the last day of the fall semester for me, and with that sense of one semester ending (so that another semester can begin all too soon!), and a "New Year" coming at the end of this month, I thought I would post this nice saying about the flow of time and existence. It is adapted from a paraphrase in Latin by the philosopher Seneca of one of the most famous sayings of the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus. Heraclitus is perhaps most famous for his saying that everything flows, "panta rhei" (πάντα ῥεῖ).
And just what does this mean, the idea that everything is flowing, and that we cannot step into the same river twice? Here's a nice discussion from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which gives Plato's take on Heraclitus, and then proceeds to propose what Heraclitus himself might have theorized:
So, hoping your spiritual river is flowing merrily along, here is today's proverb read out loud:
2000. In idem flumen bis non descendimus.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
Tomorrow is the last day of the fall semester for me, and with that sense of one semester ending (so that another semester can begin all too soon!), and a "New Year" coming at the end of this month, I thought I would post this nice saying about the flow of time and existence. It is adapted from a paraphrase in Latin by the philosopher Seneca of one of the most famous sayings of the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus. Heraclitus is perhaps most famous for his saying that everything flows, "panta rhei" (πάντα ῥεῖ).
And just what does this mean, the idea that everything is flowing, and that we cannot step into the same river twice? Here's a nice discussion from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which gives Plato's take on Heraclitus, and then proceeds to propose what Heraclitus himself might have theorized:
Plato indicates the source of the flux doctrine: "Heraclitus, I believe, says that all things go and nothing stays, and comparing existents to the flow of a river, he says you could not step twice into the same river" (Cratylus 402a = DK22A6).In Seneca, too, this notion of change and identity comes through quite clearly:
What Heraclitus actually says is the following: "On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow." (DK22B12)
There is an antithesis between 'same' and 'other.' The sentence says that different waters flow in rivers staying the same. In other words, though the waters are always changing, the rivers stay the same. Indeed, it must be precisely because the waters are always changing that there are rivers at all, rather than lakes or ponds. The message is that rivers can stay the same over time even though, or indeed because, the waters change. The point, then, is not that everything is changing, but that the fact that some things change makes possible the continued existence of other things.
Hoc est quod ait Heraclitus: 'in idem flumen bis descendimus et non descendimus'. Manet enim idem fluminis nomen, aqua transmissa est. Hoc in amne manifestius est quam in homine; sed nos quoque non minus velox cursus praetervehit, et ideo admiror dementiam nostram, quod tantopere amamus rem fugacissimam, corpus, timemusque ne quando moriamur, cum omne momentum mors prioris habitus sit.So, for all that I am very fond of the calendar, watching the old year turn into a new year, 2008, Heraclitus and Seneca remind me that this is an infinitely unfolding process, happening at every moment; instead of getting ready to celebrate a "happy new year" at the end of this month, I could be celebrating "happy new moment" all the time!
This is what Heraclitus says: "Into the same river twice we go down and do not go down." For the name of the river is the same, the water has passed through. This is more clear in a stream than in a person, but a no less swift movement carries us along as well, and thus I am surprised at our folly, because we so much love this most fleeting thing, the body, and we fear that someday we might die, when every moment is the death of our prior condition (habitus)."
So, hoping your spiritual river is flowing merrily along, here is today's proverb read out loud:
2000. In idem flumen bis non descendimus.
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.
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December 05, 2007
Semper Saturnalia agunt
In English: They are always celebrating Saturnalia.
Since the Christmas season is upon us (as I know from a visit to the shopping mall this very morning!), I thought I would post this proverb about the Roman winter holiday of Saturnalia. You will find the saying in Petronius's Satyricon. There's also a similar, more pessimistic saying from Seneca: non semper Saturnalia erunt, "It will not always be Saturnalia-time." In other words: party-time will come to an end, sooner or later. Some people, of course, are on a kind of permanent vacation; semper Saturnalia agunt, as in today's saying.
The Roman festival of Saturnalia is connected with Saturn, the Roman god of the harvest and of agriculture. We preserve his name today in the weekday "Saturday" (Latin dies Saturni), the only one of the days of the week to have kept its Roman name in English. Saturn supposedly ruled the world during the "Golden Age" of complete peace and perfect prosperity.
The festival of Saturnalia was originally celebrated on December 17, but it later extended into a week-long festival due to its enormous popularity with the Roman people. During the Saturnalia, many of the typical social rules were reversed (particularly the roles of master and slave), and activities that were normally forbidden were permitted. Feasting, gambling and gift-giving were all strongly associated with this holiday.
It seems possible that the merry-making of Saturnalia may have contributed to the establishment of the establishment of the Christmas holiday on December 25, although this is not absolutely certain. Another important Roman religious holiday, the festival of Sol Invictus ("The Undefeated Sun"), took place on the winter solstice, December 25 in the Julian calendar, when the days again began to lengthen after the longest night of the year. This festival of the sun cult was officially established by the emperor Aurelian in 274 C.E. Some time after this, the Christian holiday of Christmas was established in the fourth century. (Although some scholars have argued that the Christian holiday was already established in popular practice long before being officially sanctioned in the fourth century and that, in fact, it was the Christian practice which influenced Aurelian's establishment of his solar holiday.)
As regards today's saying, of course, the point is that Saturnalia was a holiday associated with a particular time of the year. To "always be celebrating Saturnalia" would be out of place and inappropriate - a foolish thing to do. The society of the Romans was governed by extremely strict rules and a tremendously strong work ethic; it was precisely because their moral code was so rigidly enforced during the rest of the year that Saturnalia acquired such a special value, marking out a time of extraordinary license and indulgence.
So, exactly because it is different from the rest of the year, I hope you are enjoying the holiday season while it lasts! We know, of course, unlike the foolish people in today's proverb, that "Christmas comes but once a year," as the English saying goes.
Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1868. Semper Saturnalia agunt.
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.
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Since the Christmas season is upon us (as I know from a visit to the shopping mall this very morning!), I thought I would post this proverb about the Roman winter holiday of Saturnalia. You will find the saying in Petronius's Satyricon. There's also a similar, more pessimistic saying from Seneca: non semper Saturnalia erunt, "It will not always be Saturnalia-time." In other words: party-time will come to an end, sooner or later. Some people, of course, are on a kind of permanent vacation; semper Saturnalia agunt, as in today's saying.
The Roman festival of Saturnalia is connected with Saturn, the Roman god of the harvest and of agriculture. We preserve his name today in the weekday "Saturday" (Latin dies Saturni), the only one of the days of the week to have kept its Roman name in English. Saturn supposedly ruled the world during the "Golden Age" of complete peace and perfect prosperity.
The festival of Saturnalia was originally celebrated on December 17, but it later extended into a week-long festival due to its enormous popularity with the Roman people. During the Saturnalia, many of the typical social rules were reversed (particularly the roles of master and slave), and activities that were normally forbidden were permitted. Feasting, gambling and gift-giving were all strongly associated with this holiday.
It seems possible that the merry-making of Saturnalia may have contributed to the establishment of the establishment of the Christmas holiday on December 25, although this is not absolutely certain. Another important Roman religious holiday, the festival of Sol Invictus ("The Undefeated Sun"), took place on the winter solstice, December 25 in the Julian calendar, when the days again began to lengthen after the longest night of the year. This festival of the sun cult was officially established by the emperor Aurelian in 274 C.E. Some time after this, the Christian holiday of Christmas was established in the fourth century. (Although some scholars have argued that the Christian holiday was already established in popular practice long before being officially sanctioned in the fourth century and that, in fact, it was the Christian practice which influenced Aurelian's establishment of his solar holiday.)
As regards today's saying, of course, the point is that Saturnalia was a holiday associated with a particular time of the year. To "always be celebrating Saturnalia" would be out of place and inappropriate - a foolish thing to do. The society of the Romans was governed by extremely strict rules and a tremendously strong work ethic; it was precisely because their moral code was so rigidly enforced during the rest of the year that Saturnalia acquired such a special value, marking out a time of extraordinary license and indulgence.
So, exactly because it is different from the rest of the year, I hope you are enjoying the holiday season while it lasts! We know, of course, unlike the foolish people in today's proverb, that "Christmas comes but once a year," as the English saying goes.
Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1868. Semper Saturnalia agunt.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
November 30, 2007
Dum stertit cattus, numquam sibi currit in os mus
In English: When the cat is snoring, a mouse never runs into its mouth.
Since I just finished today the huge and seemingly endless task of getting my Vulgate Verses book published (Vulgate Verses: 4000 Sayings from the Bible for Teachers and Students of Latin), I thought I would post this proverb in honor of hard work! If you are going to snooze all day as cats are wont to do, you cannot expect for mice to just show up and run into your mouth at dinner-time.
Now, I am someone who is admittedly inclined to snooze, not being very good at getting up in the morning! But somehow I've managed to get this book done, so I feel like a very happy cat who has managed to catch one very big mouse indeed, thanks to much sleepless prowling around.
There are some other nice Latin proverbs which express the same basic idea, that you cannot snooze your life away and expect everything to just take care of itself. For example, here is another one with an animal motif: Raro lupi lenti praebentur fercula denti, "Rarely do meals offer themselves to the wolf's lazy tooth." (Some very nice metonymy there, where it is the wolf's tooth that is expected to get to work in order to find some food!)
Similarly, about a fox: Dormienti vulpi cadit intra os nihil, "When the fox is sleeping, nothing falls into her mouth."
There are also a couple of fine sayings about how roast pigeons don't just fly into people's mouths: Non volat in buccas assa columba tuas, "A roast pigeon doesn't just fly into your cheeks," and Nulli per ventos assa columba volat, "The roast pigeon doesn't fly through the air for anybody."
Now if I can just sell a few more books, I can buy myself some roast pigeon... or, even better, a bottle of wine!
If you are interested in reading up on the Vulgate Verses project, I'll be blogging about that at a different address: BibliaVulgata.com. Hopefully now that the book is out, I'll be able to get on a more regular schedule posting here at Audio Latin Proverbs, too! :-)
So, whether or not you have snoozed the day away like the sleepy cat, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1996. Dum stertit cattus, numquam sibi currit in os mus.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
Since I just finished today the huge and seemingly endless task of getting my Vulgate Verses book published (Vulgate Verses: 4000 Sayings from the Bible for Teachers and Students of Latin), I thought I would post this proverb in honor of hard work! If you are going to snooze all day as cats are wont to do, you cannot expect for mice to just show up and run into your mouth at dinner-time.
Now, I am someone who is admittedly inclined to snooze, not being very good at getting up in the morning! But somehow I've managed to get this book done, so I feel like a very happy cat who has managed to catch one very big mouse indeed, thanks to much sleepless prowling around.
There are some other nice Latin proverbs which express the same basic idea, that you cannot snooze your life away and expect everything to just take care of itself. For example, here is another one with an animal motif: Raro lupi lenti praebentur fercula denti, "Rarely do meals offer themselves to the wolf's lazy tooth." (Some very nice metonymy there, where it is the wolf's tooth that is expected to get to work in order to find some food!)
Similarly, about a fox: Dormienti vulpi cadit intra os nihil, "When the fox is sleeping, nothing falls into her mouth."
There are also a couple of fine sayings about how roast pigeons don't just fly into people's mouths: Non volat in buccas assa columba tuas, "A roast pigeon doesn't just fly into your cheeks," and Nulli per ventos assa columba volat, "The roast pigeon doesn't fly through the air for anybody."
Now if I can just sell a few more books, I can buy myself some roast pigeon... or, even better, a bottle of wine!
If you are interested in reading up on the Vulgate Verses project, I'll be blogging about that at a different address: BibliaVulgata.com. Hopefully now that the book is out, I'll be able to get on a more regular schedule posting here at Audio Latin Proverbs, too! :-)
So, whether or not you have snoozed the day away like the sleepy cat, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1996. Dum stertit cattus, numquam sibi currit in os mus.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
November 24, 2007
Post triduum hospitis satietas est
In English: Three days is enough of a guest.
Yes, this is a proverb for all of you out there (me inclusa), who had guests in your house over the holidays. Literally the Latin saying reads, "After three days (post triduum) that is enough (satietas est) of a guest (hospitis).
A fuller form of the saying is Post triduum mulieris, hospitis et pluviarum satietas est, "After three days of a woman, of a guest, and of rain, that's enough."
If you are seeking an even more forceful proverb to express your "guest distress," there is also this fine saying: post tres dies, piscis vilescit, et hospes, "After three days, a fish goes bad, as does a guest." This one is immortalized in English in the 1736 edition of Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack: "Fish & Visitors stink in 3 days."
There is also a delightful rhyming English proverb which explores the days one by one: "The first day the man is a guest, the second a burden, the third a pest."
We do not have a good English word equivalent to a 3-day period, but the term triduum was a commonly used Latin word. It achieves a special sacred status in the Vulgate Bible, of course. Jesus, for example, was accused of claiming that he could destroy the temple and raise it up again in three days (Possum destruere templum Dei, et post triduum reaedificare illud), which could be allegorically interpreted in terms of the death and resurrection. Similarly, it was after three days, a triduum, that Mary and Joseph found the lost child Jesus preaching in the temple (post triduum invenerunt illum in templo sedentem in medio doctorum), another symbolic foreshadowing of his later disappearance and return.
Of course, there is nothing especially sacred about the three-day limits for guests, just a matter of practical experience. And I am speaking, ahem, as an expert! :-)
So, hoping you had happy holidays with guests only in moderation, here is today's proverb read out loud:
415. Post triduum hospitis satietas est.
1953. Post tres dies piscis vilescit et hospes.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
Yes, this is a proverb for all of you out there (me inclusa), who had guests in your house over the holidays. Literally the Latin saying reads, "After three days (post triduum) that is enough (satietas est) of a guest (hospitis).
A fuller form of the saying is Post triduum mulieris, hospitis et pluviarum satietas est, "After three days of a woman, of a guest, and of rain, that's enough."
If you are seeking an even more forceful proverb to express your "guest distress," there is also this fine saying: post tres dies, piscis vilescit, et hospes, "After three days, a fish goes bad, as does a guest." This one is immortalized in English in the 1736 edition of Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack: "Fish & Visitors stink in 3 days."
There is also a delightful rhyming English proverb which explores the days one by one: "The first day the man is a guest, the second a burden, the third a pest."
We do not have a good English word equivalent to a 3-day period, but the term triduum was a commonly used Latin word. It achieves a special sacred status in the Vulgate Bible, of course. Jesus, for example, was accused of claiming that he could destroy the temple and raise it up again in three days (Possum destruere templum Dei, et post triduum reaedificare illud), which could be allegorically interpreted in terms of the death and resurrection. Similarly, it was after three days, a triduum, that Mary and Joseph found the lost child Jesus preaching in the temple (post triduum invenerunt illum in templo sedentem in medio doctorum), another symbolic foreshadowing of his later disappearance and return.
Of course, there is nothing especially sacred about the three-day limits for guests, just a matter of practical experience. And I am speaking, ahem, as an expert! :-)
So, hoping you had happy holidays with guests only in moderation, here is today's proverb read out loud:
415. Post triduum hospitis satietas est.
1953. Post tres dies piscis vilescit et hospes.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
November 15, 2007
Gratia gratiam parit
In English: One favor gives birth to another.
In honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I thought I would do some Latin "thanks" proverbs based on the fascinating Latin word gratia, which can mean, among other things, "thanks" - as you can still recognize in the Spanish "gracias." This particular saying, gratia gratiam parit can be found in Erasmus's Adagia.
The Latin word gratia actually has a whole wide range of meaning, which is quite difficult to capture in a single English word. This is because Latin gratia is one of those notorious two-way words, which works to define both the relationship you have to others, and also the relationship they have to you. (Another such notorious word in Latin hospes, which means both "guest" and "host.")
You can see this split in the two main headings for the definition of gratia in Lewis and Short. On the one hand, gratia is something that someone shows to you, not so much "thanks" but rather their "favor" to you, the "grace" they bestow upon you: I. A. Favor which one finds with others, esteem, regard, liking, love, friendship (syn. favor) B. Transf., objectively, like the Gr. xa/ris, agreeableness, pleasantness, charm, beauty, loveliness, grace.
Alternatively, Latin gratia can be the "favor" you do for someone else, the "thanks" that you give to them, a sign of your "gratitude," etc.: II. A. Favor which one shows to another, mark of favor, kindness, courtesy, service, obligation. B. In partic., a mark of favor shown for a service rendered, thanks (by word or deed), thankfulness, gratitude; acknowledgment, return, requital.
This reciprocal relationship embodied in the word gratia helps to expose the deep logic of today's proverb - and also the impossibility of translating it into English! When you say in Latin gratia gratiam parit, you are expressing that reciprocal relationship: a person's gracious favor engenders grateful thanks on your part; and your act of thanksgiving to that person, in turn, engenders their gratitude, and so on.
Isn't it lovely? English has derived many word from Latin gratia, such as "grace," "gracious," "grateful," "gratitude," and even "gratuitous" and "ingrate" - but all those separate words do not manage to convey the reciprocality inherent in the definition of Latin gratia itself.
This post is dedicated to Nancy Diven: she will know why immediately! :-)
Meanwhile, hoping you are expecting a happy Thanksgiving holiday, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1566. Gratia gratiam parit.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
In honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I thought I would do some Latin "thanks" proverbs based on the fascinating Latin word gratia, which can mean, among other things, "thanks" - as you can still recognize in the Spanish "gracias." This particular saying, gratia gratiam parit can be found in Erasmus's Adagia.
The Latin word gratia actually has a whole wide range of meaning, which is quite difficult to capture in a single English word. This is because Latin gratia is one of those notorious two-way words, which works to define both the relationship you have to others, and also the relationship they have to you. (Another such notorious word in Latin hospes, which means both "guest" and "host.")
You can see this split in the two main headings for the definition of gratia in Lewis and Short. On the one hand, gratia is something that someone shows to you, not so much "thanks" but rather their "favor" to you, the "grace" they bestow upon you: I. A. Favor which one finds with others, esteem, regard, liking, love, friendship (syn. favor) B. Transf., objectively, like the Gr. xa/ris, agreeableness, pleasantness, charm, beauty, loveliness, grace.
Alternatively, Latin gratia can be the "favor" you do for someone else, the "thanks" that you give to them, a sign of your "gratitude," etc.: II. A. Favor which one shows to another, mark of favor, kindness, courtesy, service, obligation. B. In partic., a mark of favor shown for a service rendered, thanks (by word or deed), thankfulness, gratitude; acknowledgment, return, requital.
This reciprocal relationship embodied in the word gratia helps to expose the deep logic of today's proverb - and also the impossibility of translating it into English! When you say in Latin gratia gratiam parit, you are expressing that reciprocal relationship: a person's gracious favor engenders grateful thanks on your part; and your act of thanksgiving to that person, in turn, engenders their gratitude, and so on.
Isn't it lovely? English has derived many word from Latin gratia, such as "grace," "gracious," "grateful," "gratitude," and even "gratuitous" and "ingrate" - but all those separate words do not manage to convey the reciprocality inherent in the definition of Latin gratia itself.
This post is dedicated to Nancy Diven: she will know why immediately! :-)
Meanwhile, hoping you are expecting a happy Thanksgiving holiday, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1566. Gratia gratiam parit.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
November 05, 2007
Palma non sine pulvere
In English: No palm without dust.
I thought I would choose this proverb today in honor of the fact that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the work I have to do, but this proverb promises me at least the possibility of some kind of reward: in exchange for the dust (stirred up by all this hard work), I might hope to achieve the palm of victory!
This is a saying that has inspired many scholars and students over the ages. For example, you can find this saying as the motto of the Friends School of Baltimore, a Quaker school established all the way back in 1784. The best English equivalent I can think of is "no pain, no gain!"
The Latin saying is derived from Horace's first epistle, which asks the rhetorical question of whether the prize of the palm of victory without any effort would be worth having (sit condicio dulcis sine pulvere palmae?), the answer being that it would not be worth having at all!
Horace's use of the image thus shows that the proverb actually cuts both ways: you can read it to mean that you cannot hope to get the palm of victory without making some kind of effort and, conversely, that if you were somehow to get the palm of victory without having made any real effort, it would be a meaningless, hollow victory.
The Latin word pulvis, meaning "dust," is especially associated with athletic effort and competition, whereas in English it unfortunately suggests the endless effort of dusting around the house! In the same way that "sand," Latin harena or arena, could stand by metonymy for athletic competition (hence our English word "arena"), the dust, too, conjured up images of sporting events and athletic displays. Something that was "dusty," pulverulentus, was not something necessarily old, dirty and neglected (as in the connotations of the English word); rather, something covered with dust in Latin was something that represented effort and toil, as when Ovid writes about military honors which are covered in dust, praemia militiae pulverulenta.
At the moment, then, the two book manuscripts I am working on are definitely "dusty" - not because I am neglecting them, but because I am working so hard at them, striving for the palm of victory!
So, hoping you too are surviving the dust on your road to victory, here is today's proverb read out loud:
355. Palma non sine pulvere.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
I thought I would choose this proverb today in honor of the fact that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the work I have to do, but this proverb promises me at least the possibility of some kind of reward: in exchange for the dust (stirred up by all this hard work), I might hope to achieve the palm of victory!
This is a saying that has inspired many scholars and students over the ages. For example, you can find this saying as the motto of the Friends School of Baltimore, a Quaker school established all the way back in 1784. The best English equivalent I can think of is "no pain, no gain!"
The Latin saying is derived from Horace's first epistle, which asks the rhetorical question of whether the prize of the palm of victory without any effort would be worth having (sit condicio dulcis sine pulvere palmae?), the answer being that it would not be worth having at all!
Horace's use of the image thus shows that the proverb actually cuts both ways: you can read it to mean that you cannot hope to get the palm of victory without making some kind of effort and, conversely, that if you were somehow to get the palm of victory without having made any real effort, it would be a meaningless, hollow victory.
The Latin word pulvis, meaning "dust," is especially associated with athletic effort and competition, whereas in English it unfortunately suggests the endless effort of dusting around the house! In the same way that "sand," Latin harena or arena, could stand by metonymy for athletic competition (hence our English word "arena"), the dust, too, conjured up images of sporting events and athletic displays. Something that was "dusty," pulverulentus, was not something necessarily old, dirty and neglected (as in the connotations of the English word); rather, something covered with dust in Latin was something that represented effort and toil, as when Ovid writes about military honors which are covered in dust, praemia militiae pulverulenta.
At the moment, then, the two book manuscripts I am working on are definitely "dusty" - not because I am neglecting them, but because I am working so hard at them, striving for the palm of victory!
So, hoping you too are surviving the dust on your road to victory, here is today's proverb read out loud:
355. Palma non sine pulvere.
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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October 30, 2007
Papulas observatis alienas, obsiti plurimis ulceribus
In English: You pay attention to other people's pimples, when you yourselves are covered with innumerable sores.
I wanted to include this great denunciation of hypocrisy as today's saying, since it resonates so nicely with the story about the fox and the frog which I included at LatinViaFables.com last week. In that story, a frog - even though it looks so sickly itself! - claimed to be a doctor that cured others. The fox alone of all the animals was able to rebuke the foolish frog with a variation on "physician, heal thyself."
Today's saying looks at the this same sort of hypocrisy from a different angle: there are people who are critical of some small fault in others (a pimple) while seeming to be oblivious to enormous faults of their own (innumerable ulcers). Probably the most famous example of this type of saying is the famous passage in the Gospels, as here in Matthew:
The saying comes from the philosopher Seneca, in his treatise De Beata Vita, On The Happy Life. In this passage, he is denouncing people who criticize the faults of the famous philosophers (their ethical pimples, so to speak), when they themselves are covered with sores: Vobis autem vacat aliena scrutari mala et sententias ferre de quoquam? "Quare hic philosophus laxius habitat? quare hic lautius cenat?" Papulas observatis alienas, obsiti plurimis ulceribus., "Do you have the spare time to spend scrutinizing other people's failings and expressing opinions about such stuff? 'Why does this philosopher have so lavish a house? why does this one dine so extravagantly?' You pay attention to other people's pimples, when you yourselves are covered with innumerable sores."
So, hoping you are afflicted with neither pimples nor with philosophical hypocrisy, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1241. Papulas observatis alienas, obsiti plurimis ulceribus.
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.
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I wanted to include this great denunciation of hypocrisy as today's saying, since it resonates so nicely with the story about the fox and the frog which I included at LatinViaFables.com last week. In that story, a frog - even though it looks so sickly itself! - claimed to be a doctor that cured others. The fox alone of all the animals was able to rebuke the foolish frog with a variation on "physician, heal thyself."
Today's saying looks at the this same sort of hypocrisy from a different angle: there are people who are critical of some small fault in others (a pimple) while seeming to be oblivious to enormous faults of their own (innumerable ulcers). Probably the most famous example of this type of saying is the famous passage in the Gospels, as here in Matthew:
Quid autem vides festucam in oculo fratris tui et trabem in oculo tuo non vides? Aut quomodo dicis fratri tuo "sine; eiciam festucam de oculo tuo" et ecce trabis est in oculo tuo? Hypocrita! eice primum trabem de oculo tuo et tunc videbis eicere festucam de oculo fratris tui.This is a great Bible passage, but unfortunately "motes" and "beams" in the eye are a bit arcane. Today's saying works with images of pimples and ulcerating sores, Latin papulae and ulcera, are easier to visualize!
And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: Let me cast the mote out of thy eye; and behold a beam is in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
The saying comes from the philosopher Seneca, in his treatise De Beata Vita, On The Happy Life. In this passage, he is denouncing people who criticize the faults of the famous philosophers (their ethical pimples, so to speak), when they themselves are covered with sores: Vobis autem vacat aliena scrutari mala et sententias ferre de quoquam? "Quare hic philosophus laxius habitat? quare hic lautius cenat?" Papulas observatis alienas, obsiti plurimis ulceribus., "Do you have the spare time to spend scrutinizing other people's failings and expressing opinions about such stuff? 'Why does this philosopher have so lavish a house? why does this one dine so extravagantly?' You pay attention to other people's pimples, when you yourselves are covered with innumerable sores."
So, hoping you are afflicted with neither pimples nor with philosophical hypocrisy, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1241. Papulas observatis alienas, obsiti plurimis ulceribus.
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.
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October 26, 2007
Canis sine dentibus vehementius latrat
In English: A dog without teeth barks more viciously.
Of course, this proverb has a familiar English form: "his bark is worse than his bite." The Latin conveys basically the same idea, because of course the bite of a dog who has no teeth is not really something you have to be afraid of.
At the same time, though, the Latin proverb is somewhat different from the English saying. The English saying insists that the bark is worse than the bite - but it doesn't make any claims about the bite at all (it could still be a pretty nasty bite, after all!). In the Latin saying, however, the situation is that this is a dog with no bite at all (no teeth), and precisely for that reason, his bark is all the worse!
I like this kind of saying because the "barking dog" is such a great way to characterize the meaningless "yelp yelp yelp" of people who are complaining about something, but who don't have the "teeth," so to speak, to enforce their point of view. To compensate for their lack of bite, they have to keep on barking, over and over again (one of the hallmarks of the dog's bark, of course, is that it goes on and on, as anyone knows who has had a neighbor with a dog that barks!). In that regard, there's another English saying worth noting here: "Don't bark if you cannot bite!"
And what about the silent dog, the dog who does not bark? There's a Latin saying that warns us about that dangerous situation: cave tibi a cane muto et aqua silenti, "keep an eye out for the silent dog and the quiet water." The second part of that saying is a variation on the famous saying Aqua profunda est quieta, "still waters run deep," which I have blogged about previously.
So, hoping you are managing to avoid canine hostility of any kind, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1182. Canis sine dentibus vehementius latrat.
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.
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Of course, this proverb has a familiar English form: "his bark is worse than his bite." The Latin conveys basically the same idea, because of course the bite of a dog who has no teeth is not really something you have to be afraid of.
At the same time, though, the Latin proverb is somewhat different from the English saying. The English saying insists that the bark is worse than the bite - but it doesn't make any claims about the bite at all (it could still be a pretty nasty bite, after all!). In the Latin saying, however, the situation is that this is a dog with no bite at all (no teeth), and precisely for that reason, his bark is all the worse!
I like this kind of saying because the "barking dog" is such a great way to characterize the meaningless "yelp yelp yelp" of people who are complaining about something, but who don't have the "teeth," so to speak, to enforce their point of view. To compensate for their lack of bite, they have to keep on barking, over and over again (one of the hallmarks of the dog's bark, of course, is that it goes on and on, as anyone knows who has had a neighbor with a dog that barks!). In that regard, there's another English saying worth noting here: "Don't bark if you cannot bite!"
And what about the silent dog, the dog who does not bark? There's a Latin saying that warns us about that dangerous situation: cave tibi a cane muto et aqua silenti, "keep an eye out for the silent dog and the quiet water." The second part of that saying is a variation on the famous saying Aqua profunda est quieta, "still waters run deep," which I have blogged about previously.
So, hoping you are managing to avoid canine hostility of any kind, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1182. Canis sine dentibus vehementius latrat.
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.
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October 17, 2007
Qui non laborat, non manducat
In English: He who does not work, does not eat.
Last time, I posted a saying in honor of our little vacation this weekend, and I thought today's saying would be a way to mark my return to the world of work! In this form, the saying is presented as a simple statement of fact, with both verbs in the indicative: the man who does not work (non laborat), does not eat (non manducat). This saying is probably best known for its use in Rabelais' Gargantua.
A simple English saying gets right to the point: "No work, no eat." The radical utilitarian Jeremy Bentham in his essay Pauper Systems Compared actually refers to the "no-work-no-eat principle." A Google search of the phrase "no work no eat" will show that it has been used in a whole range of circumstances, some perhaps well-meaning and others brutally harsh.
You will also find this saying in the subjunctive form: qui non laborat, non manducet (although classical purists will shudder a bit at the non with the subjunctive): "He who does not work, let him not eat." Instead of being a simple observation of fact, this one has a frightening additional authority, meaning that even the bread of charity should be denied to this person. This is the saying which makes its way into Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The Bible itself provided the prompt for this subjunctive form, in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 3: si quis non vult operari nec manducet, "if someone does not want to work, let him not eat." Of course, the book of Genesis already tells us that Adam was going to have to work to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow and - as the English saying has it, "the sweat of Adam's brow hath streamed down ours ever since."
So, hoping that you are earning your bread these days without too much sweat, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1298. Qui non laborat, non manducat
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
Last time, I posted a saying in honor of our little vacation this weekend, and I thought today's saying would be a way to mark my return to the world of work! In this form, the saying is presented as a simple statement of fact, with both verbs in the indicative: the man who does not work (non laborat), does not eat (non manducat). This saying is probably best known for its use in Rabelais' Gargantua.
A simple English saying gets right to the point: "No work, no eat." The radical utilitarian Jeremy Bentham in his essay Pauper Systems Compared actually refers to the "no-work-no-eat principle." A Google search of the phrase "no work no eat" will show that it has been used in a whole range of circumstances, some perhaps well-meaning and others brutally harsh.
You will also find this saying in the subjunctive form: qui non laborat, non manducet (although classical purists will shudder a bit at the non with the subjunctive): "He who does not work, let him not eat." Instead of being a simple observation of fact, this one has a frightening additional authority, meaning that even the bread of charity should be denied to this person. This is the saying which makes its way into Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The Bible itself provided the prompt for this subjunctive form, in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 3: si quis non vult operari nec manducet, "if someone does not want to work, let him not eat." Of course, the book of Genesis already tells us that Adam was going to have to work to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow and - as the English saying has it, "the sweat of Adam's brow hath streamed down ours ever since."
So, hoping that you are earning your bread these days without too much sweat, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1298. Qui non laborat, non manducat
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
October 11, 2007
Arcum nimia frangit intensio
In English: Too much tension breaks the bow.
I thought this would be a good proverb to do in honor of a tiny vacation that we are taking this weekend, getting away to the coast to do nothing in particular for a couple of days! I've finally sent the Vulgate Verses book off to the publisher to get back real proofs for the final copy editing... but for now: it's time to take a break!
So, today's proverb reminds us that while the bow derives its power from tension, from stretching and from straining, it's also important to relax the bow at other times, or else you will break it - and a broken bow will not do anyone any good.
Phaedrus tells us a story showing how Aesop himself supposedly used this metaphor of the tense bow to teach a lesson about the need to relax and play:
Puerorum in turba quidam ludentem Atticus
Aesopum nucibus cum vidisset, restitit,
et quasi delirum risit. Quod sensit simul
derisor potius quam deridendus senex,
arcum retensum posuit in media via:
"Heus" inquit "sapiens, expedi quid fecerim."
Concurrit populus. Ille se torquet diu,
nec quaestiones positae causam intellegit.
Novissime succumbit. Tum victor sophus:
"Cito rumpes arcum, semper se tensum habueris;
at si laxaris, cum voles erit utilis."
Sic lusus animo debent aliquando dari,
ad cogitandum melior ut redeat tibi.
For an English translation, here's a fun version by Christopher Smart:
As Esop was with boys at play,
And had his nuts as well as they,
A grave Athenian, passing by,
Cast on the sage a scornful eye,
As on a dotard quite bereaved:
Which, when the moralist perceived,
(Rather himself a wit profess'd
Than the poor subject of a jest)
Into the public way he flung
A bow that he had just unstrung:
There solve, thou conjurer," he cries,
"The problem, that before thee lies."
The people throng; he racks his brain,
Nor can the thing enjoin'd explain.
At last he gives it up-the seer
Thus then in triumph made it clear:
" As the tough bow exerts its spring,
A constant tension breaks the string;
But if 'tis let at seasons loose,
You may depend upon its use."
Thus recreative sports and play
Are good upon a holiday,
And with more spirit they'll pursue
The studies which they shall renew.
So, hoping you can enjoy a few moments' relaxation and return with more spirit to your renewed studies, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1905. Arcum nimia frangit intensio.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
I thought this would be a good proverb to do in honor of a tiny vacation that we are taking this weekend, getting away to the coast to do nothing in particular for a couple of days! I've finally sent the Vulgate Verses book off to the publisher to get back real proofs for the final copy editing... but for now: it's time to take a break!
So, today's proverb reminds us that while the bow derives its power from tension, from stretching and from straining, it's also important to relax the bow at other times, or else you will break it - and a broken bow will not do anyone any good.
Phaedrus tells us a story showing how Aesop himself supposedly used this metaphor of the tense bow to teach a lesson about the need to relax and play:
Puerorum in turba quidam ludentem Atticus
Aesopum nucibus cum vidisset, restitit,
et quasi delirum risit. Quod sensit simul
derisor potius quam deridendus senex,
arcum retensum posuit in media via:
"Heus" inquit "sapiens, expedi quid fecerim."
Concurrit populus. Ille se torquet diu,
nec quaestiones positae causam intellegit.
Novissime succumbit. Tum victor sophus:
"Cito rumpes arcum, semper se tensum habueris;
at si laxaris, cum voles erit utilis."
Sic lusus animo debent aliquando dari,
ad cogitandum melior ut redeat tibi.
For an English translation, here's a fun version by Christopher Smart:
As Esop was with boys at play,
And had his nuts as well as they,
A grave Athenian, passing by,
Cast on the sage a scornful eye,
As on a dotard quite bereaved:
Which, when the moralist perceived,
(Rather himself a wit profess'd
Than the poor subject of a jest)
Into the public way he flung
A bow that he had just unstrung:
There solve, thou conjurer," he cries,
"The problem, that before thee lies."
The people throng; he racks his brain,
Nor can the thing enjoin'd explain.
At last he gives it up-the seer
Thus then in triumph made it clear:
" As the tough bow exerts its spring,
A constant tension breaks the string;
But if 'tis let at seasons loose,
You may depend upon its use."
Thus recreative sports and play
Are good upon a holiday,
And with more spirit they'll pursue
The studies which they shall renew.
So, hoping you can enjoy a few moments' relaxation and return with more spirit to your renewed studies, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1905. Arcum nimia frangit intensio.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
October 04, 2007
In media luce erras
In English: You are stumbling around in broad daylight.
I thought this saying would be a good follow-up to the previous proverb about truth standing in medio, "in the middle." In this saying, you can see that the Latin word medius is used somewhat differently from what we do with the word "middle" in English. In English, we talk about being in the middle of something - I woke up in the middle of the night, I fell asleep in the middle of the movie, and so on. In Latin, on the other hand, medius is used regularly as an adjective, as we do in some fixed phrases in English, such as stopping "mid-stream" or having a "mid-life" crisis.
So, in today's saying, the feminine noun lux is modified by the adjective, media - resulting in the phrase, in media luce, in the middle (of the) light. In other words, not off to the side, not in the darkness, but in the very brightest place where the light is shining. You might also compare the English phrase, "in broad daylight."
The idea of the saying is that despite the fact that it is absolutely bright and light, the person is still lost, still unable to find their way. In other words: there must be something wrong with the person, since they cannot blame the darkness for the fact that they are lost.
Although it is not quite the same thing, this reminds me of a wonderful joke about the proverbial Nasruddin. The story goes more or less like this: One of Nasruddin's friends came to visit him and found him crawling around outside his house, looking for something in the dirt. The friend asked Nasruddin what had happened and Nasruddin told him he was looking for a coin that he had lost. The friend, wanting to help, got down in the dirt and started looking for the coin, too. Much time passed, and there was no sign of the coin, but Nasruddin kept painstakingly examining the dirt around his house. Finally the friend asked whether Nasruddin had any idea just where he might have dropped the coin. Nasruddin explained that he had dropped the coin in the house most certainly. The friend leaped to his feet and asked why on earth they were crawling around in the dirt looking for the coin, if it was somewhere in the house. "It is dark in the house," Naruddin explained, "and it is easier to look for something in the light."
It's a different kind of fool's errand, of course - kind of the inverse of the Latin saying. Nasruddin has gone to the light to look for what is lost, even though he lost it in the dark. Meanwhile, the Latin saying describes someone who cannot even find something right there in front of him, in the midst of the light!
So, hoping that you are not afflicted today with either one of these forms of "light blindness," here is this week's saying read out loud:
1203. In media luce erras.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
I thought this saying would be a good follow-up to the previous proverb about truth standing in medio, "in the middle." In this saying, you can see that the Latin word medius is used somewhat differently from what we do with the word "middle" in English. In English, we talk about being in the middle of something - I woke up in the middle of the night, I fell asleep in the middle of the movie, and so on. In Latin, on the other hand, medius is used regularly as an adjective, as we do in some fixed phrases in English, such as stopping "mid-stream" or having a "mid-life" crisis.
So, in today's saying, the feminine noun lux is modified by the adjective, media - resulting in the phrase, in media luce, in the middle (of the) light. In other words, not off to the side, not in the darkness, but in the very brightest place where the light is shining. You might also compare the English phrase, "in broad daylight."
The idea of the saying is that despite the fact that it is absolutely bright and light, the person is still lost, still unable to find their way. In other words: there must be something wrong with the person, since they cannot blame the darkness for the fact that they are lost.
Although it is not quite the same thing, this reminds me of a wonderful joke about the proverbial Nasruddin. The story goes more or less like this: One of Nasruddin's friends came to visit him and found him crawling around outside his house, looking for something in the dirt. The friend asked Nasruddin what had happened and Nasruddin told him he was looking for a coin that he had lost. The friend, wanting to help, got down in the dirt and started looking for the coin, too. Much time passed, and there was no sign of the coin, but Nasruddin kept painstakingly examining the dirt around his house. Finally the friend asked whether Nasruddin had any idea just where he might have dropped the coin. Nasruddin explained that he had dropped the coin in the house most certainly. The friend leaped to his feet and asked why on earth they were crawling around in the dirt looking for the coin, if it was somewhere in the house. "It is dark in the house," Naruddin explained, "and it is easier to look for something in the light."
It's a different kind of fool's errand, of course - kind of the inverse of the Latin saying. Nasruddin has gone to the light to look for what is lost, even though he lost it in the dark. Meanwhile, the Latin saying describes someone who cannot even find something right there in front of him, in the midst of the light!
So, hoping that you are not afflicted today with either one of these forms of "light blindness," here is this week's saying read out loud:
1203. In media luce erras.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
September 26, 2007
In medio stat veritas
In English: The truth stands in the middle.
I thought this saying would make a good companion to the other proverbs in praise of "the middle" which I've posted previously. I know this saying is quite well-known in English even today, as it is one of my husband's favorites. "The truth lies somewhere in the middle." In other words - when there are two extreme contesting points of view, you would do well to look for the truth somewhere in between their extreme accounts.
I've been having a great time searching for Latin proverbs using the amazing Google Books in order to locate collections of Latin sayings that Google has digitized and other interesting materials that turn up when you search for Latin things. When I searched for today's saying, I was led to an old Latin textbook from the year 1818: Liber primus, or, A first book of Latin exercises, by Joseph Dana. Here is an excerpt from the preface explaining the book's goals: "Its object is to present, in a genuine Latin style, sentiments worthy of a place in the minds of youth, as adapted to cultivate the moral sense; to excite, and, in some small measure, to gratify a laudable desire to knowledge."
The book begins with very short sentences, and then builds up to paragraph-long discourses, such as this little discourse on Truth, Veritas:
I'm not sure, but I think Dana's thought here might be inspired by something from one of Bernard of Clairvaux's sermons: Non amat veritas angulos; non ei diversoria placent, "Truth does not love corners; it does not like diversions from the way." The Latin diversorium usually meant a waystation or lodging house along the road - but truth keeps marching on straight ahead, turning no corners, not pausing at stops along the way. For yet a similar metaphorical expression, consider this saying from Dante's De Monarchia: recta via non amat angulos, "The right way does not like corners." Here again it is a matter of keeping on going straight ahead, without ducking aside or deviating from what is right.
So, you can think about something standing in the middle between two extremes, or you can think of something standing in the middle, stalwartly refusing to turn aside: in either case, the middle is a laudable place to be!
So, hoping you find yourself on middle ground at the moment, here is this week's proverb read out loud:
1108. In medio stat veritas.
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.
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I thought this saying would make a good companion to the other proverbs in praise of "the middle" which I've posted previously. I know this saying is quite well-known in English even today, as it is one of my husband's favorites. "The truth lies somewhere in the middle." In other words - when there are two extreme contesting points of view, you would do well to look for the truth somewhere in between their extreme accounts.
I've been having a great time searching for Latin proverbs using the amazing Google Books in order to locate collections of Latin sayings that Google has digitized and other interesting materials that turn up when you search for Latin things. When I searched for today's saying, I was led to an old Latin textbook from the year 1818: Liber primus, or, A first book of Latin exercises, by Joseph Dana. Here is an excerpt from the preface explaining the book's goals: "Its object is to present, in a genuine Latin style, sentiments worthy of a place in the minds of youth, as adapted to cultivate the moral sense; to excite, and, in some small measure, to gratify a laudable desire to knowledge."
The book begins with very short sentences, and then builds up to paragraph-long discourses, such as this little discourse on Truth, Veritas:
Nihil veritate sanctius et pretiosius haberi debet. Turpe est aliud loqui, aliud sentire; quod sentimus loquamur, quod loquimur sentiamus: concordet sermo cum vita. Non amat veritas angulos; in medio stat: licet nullum patronum aut defensorem obtineat, tamen per se ipsa defenditur. Non solum proditor est veritatis, qui mendacium pro veritate loquitur, sed qui non libere veritatem pronuntiat quam pronuntiare oportet; aut non libere defendit libertatem quam defendere oportet.As you can see, this writer has taken today's saying in a slightly unusual metaphorical direction. Here, it is not that truth lies somewhere in the middle between two extremes; rather, this is truth who stands boldly and proudly in the open middle and does not hide in the corners! This is not the usual way in today's proverb is taken, but it is metaphorically sound.
Nothing should be considered more holy or more precious than truth. It is despicable to say one thing and to think another; let us speak what we think; let us think what we speak: speech should accord with life. Truth does not love the corners; it stands in the middle: even if it might not have a patron or protector, truth itself is nevertheless her own defender. The betrayer of truth is not only the person who speaks a lie in place of truth, but he who does not freely speak the truth which he should speak, or who does not freely defend the freedom which he should defend.
I'm not sure, but I think Dana's thought here might be inspired by something from one of Bernard of Clairvaux's sermons: Non amat veritas angulos; non ei diversoria placent, "Truth does not love corners; it does not like diversions from the way." The Latin diversorium usually meant a waystation or lodging house along the road - but truth keeps marching on straight ahead, turning no corners, not pausing at stops along the way. For yet a similar metaphorical expression, consider this saying from Dante's De Monarchia: recta via non amat angulos, "The right way does not like corners." Here again it is a matter of keeping on going straight ahead, without ducking aside or deviating from what is right.
So, you can think about something standing in the middle between two extremes, or you can think of something standing in the middle, stalwartly refusing to turn aside: in either case, the middle is a laudable place to be!
So, hoping you find yourself on middle ground at the moment, here is this week's proverb read out loud:
1108. In medio stat veritas.
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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September 19, 2007
Intacta invidia media sunt
In English: Middle things are untouched by envy.
Note: As those of you who read the daily round-up for the Bestiaria Latina blogs already know, I'm shifting from daily updates at the various blogs to weekly updates until I claw my way out from under the pile of book obligations I have heaped upon myself! So, there is something new at the Bestiaria Latina blogs every day, but there will only be one new Audio Latin Proverb post per week for a while. Thank you for your patience... and wish me luck with the Vulgate Verses book (almost done!) and the Barlow's Aesop (barely begun!).
Today's saying is a good follow-up to the previous proverb about the golden mean, aurea mediocitas. Today's saying also advocates moderation, "middle things," Latin media. The idea here is that if you are not a person with extravagant wealth, you will not provoke the envy of those around you. You can find the saying in Livy's History of Rome.
In our modern way of thinking, envy is an emotional state, a feeling that someone might experience when they want something that someone else has and which they do not. When envy is an emotional state, the only real victim is the person who suffers from envy. For that reason, this proverb does not really make a lot of sense in the modern context. Honestly, who cares if someone envies you? That is their problem, not yours. You might worry about a thief trying to break into your house and steal your wealth - but we do not associate thieves with envy; that is an altogether different cycle of vice.
For the ancient Romans, though, the problem of envy, invidia, was something altogether more serious, and more threatening. Envy was able to manifest itself as the power of the evil eye, hence in-vidia. Someone who is envious of you could cast the evil eye upon you, with disastrous consequences! So, being "touched by envy," i.e. being touched by the evil eye, was a real danger in the ancient Roman way of thinking. The moderation praised in today's proverb is laudable precisely because it does not provoke envy, and does not leave you exposed to the terrible peril of the evil eye!
It's also worth saying something here about the Latin grammar of this saying, since it is something that can be useful for even beginning Latin students. Even though intacta, invidia and media end in the letter "a" they are not the same forms by any means. The word invidia ends in a long "a" and is a feminine ablative singular form. The words intacta and media end in short "a" and are neuter nominative plural, agreeing with one another as subject and predicate. Notice also that the Latin word media has itself become a modern English word, as in the "mass media." Do you regard "media" as a singular or a plural word in English? While we use both the words "medium" and "media" in English, I'm guessing most native English speakers do not think of "media" as the plural of "medium" (my random inquiry of the people I was talking with today found only one person who made that connection, even with a bit of prompting!).
So, hoping you are enjoying a "happy medium" that is envy-free, here is this week's proverb read out loud:
120. Intacta invidia media sunt.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
Note: As those of you who read the daily round-up for the Bestiaria Latina blogs already know, I'm shifting from daily updates at the various blogs to weekly updates until I claw my way out from under the pile of book obligations I have heaped upon myself! So, there is something new at the Bestiaria Latina blogs every day, but there will only be one new Audio Latin Proverb post per week for a while. Thank you for your patience... and wish me luck with the Vulgate Verses book (almost done!) and the Barlow's Aesop (barely begun!).
Today's saying is a good follow-up to the previous proverb about the golden mean, aurea mediocitas. Today's saying also advocates moderation, "middle things," Latin media. The idea here is that if you are not a person with extravagant wealth, you will not provoke the envy of those around you. You can find the saying in Livy's History of Rome.
In our modern way of thinking, envy is an emotional state, a feeling that someone might experience when they want something that someone else has and which they do not. When envy is an emotional state, the only real victim is the person who suffers from envy. For that reason, this proverb does not really make a lot of sense in the modern context. Honestly, who cares if someone envies you? That is their problem, not yours. You might worry about a thief trying to break into your house and steal your wealth - but we do not associate thieves with envy; that is an altogether different cycle of vice.
For the ancient Romans, though, the problem of envy, invidia, was something altogether more serious, and more threatening. Envy was able to manifest itself as the power of the evil eye, hence in-vidia. Someone who is envious of you could cast the evil eye upon you, with disastrous consequences! So, being "touched by envy," i.e. being touched by the evil eye, was a real danger in the ancient Roman way of thinking. The moderation praised in today's proverb is laudable precisely because it does not provoke envy, and does not leave you exposed to the terrible peril of the evil eye!
It's also worth saying something here about the Latin grammar of this saying, since it is something that can be useful for even beginning Latin students. Even though intacta, invidia and media end in the letter "a" they are not the same forms by any means. The word invidia ends in a long "a" and is a feminine ablative singular form. The words intacta and media end in short "a" and are neuter nominative plural, agreeing with one another as subject and predicate. Notice also that the Latin word media has itself become a modern English word, as in the "mass media." Do you regard "media" as a singular or a plural word in English? While we use both the words "medium" and "media" in English, I'm guessing most native English speakers do not think of "media" as the plural of "medium" (my random inquiry of the people I was talking with today found only one person who made that connection, even with a bit of prompting!).
So, hoping you are enjoying a "happy medium" that is envy-free, here is this week's proverb read out loud:
120. Intacta invidia media sunt.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
September 14, 2007
Auream mediocritatem diligo
In English: I cherish the golden mean.
I thought this would be a good follow-up to the theme of "gold" in the proverbs of the past couple days. In today's proverb, "golden" is used in the positive sense of the "golden" mean, not too much and not too little, something that is definitely to be prized. Moderation in all things.
Yet as soon as you read the Latin, you realize what a dreadful fate has befallen the Latin word mediocritas, the "mean" or "middle-ness" of moderation. In English, the word "mediocrity" has nothing but negative connotations. We are living in the world of Garrison Keelor's Lake Wobegon, "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." You can even read an entry about the Lake Wobegon Effect in wikipedia, where it is defined as "the tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities in relation to others."
In other words, it's not good enough to be "good enough" anymore; instead, everybody has to be better than average. No more golden mean.
The Latin form of today's phrase is adapted from one of Horace's odes, which reads: Auream quisquis mediocritatem / diligit, tutus caret obsoleti / sordibus tecti, caret inuidenda / sobrius aula.. You can see three different English verse translations of this famous ode at Laudator Temporis Acti; my favorite of the three is this one by John Conington, who translates this stanza as follows:
Who makes the golden mean his guide,
Shuns miser's cabin, foul and dark,
Shuns gilded roofs, where pomp and pride
Are envy's mark.
So, in the end, today's proverb has much in common with the theme of yesterday's proverb: better the golden mean of moderate prosperity than the golden shackles of wealth ... or the iron shackles of abject poverty!
So, hoping you have had a "mediocre" day in the good old Latin sense of that word, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1855. Auream mediocritatem diligo.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
I thought this would be a good follow-up to the theme of "gold" in the proverbs of the past couple days. In today's proverb, "golden" is used in the positive sense of the "golden" mean, not too much and not too little, something that is definitely to be prized. Moderation in all things.
Yet as soon as you read the Latin, you realize what a dreadful fate has befallen the Latin word mediocritas, the "mean" or "middle-ness" of moderation. In English, the word "mediocrity" has nothing but negative connotations. We are living in the world of Garrison Keelor's Lake Wobegon, "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." You can even read an entry about the Lake Wobegon Effect in wikipedia, where it is defined as "the tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities in relation to others."
In other words, it's not good enough to be "good enough" anymore; instead, everybody has to be better than average. No more golden mean.
The Latin form of today's phrase is adapted from one of Horace's odes, which reads: Auream quisquis mediocritatem / diligit, tutus caret obsoleti / sordibus tecti, caret inuidenda / sobrius aula.. You can see three different English verse translations of this famous ode at Laudator Temporis Acti; my favorite of the three is this one by John Conington, who translates this stanza as follows:
Who makes the golden mean his guide,
Shuns miser's cabin, foul and dark,
Shuns gilded roofs, where pomp and pride
Are envy's mark.
So, in the end, today's proverb has much in common with the theme of yesterday's proverb: better the golden mean of moderate prosperity than the golden shackles of wealth ... or the iron shackles of abject poverty!
So, hoping you have had a "mediocre" day in the good old Latin sense of that word, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1855. Auream mediocritatem diligo.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
September 13, 2007
Stulti est compedes, licet aureas, amare
In English: It is for a fool to love fetters, even though they be golden.
After the previous proverb about the golden reins and the horse, I thought this would be a good follow-up. The idea here, of course, is that the rich man is really foolish, having given up all kinds of freedom in exchange for that golden prosperity - a golden prosperity that for all its opulence is less valuable than an unfettered life of freedom. As someone who walked away from a much more lucrative and "respectable" line of work some years ago (resigning my tenure-track research job in order to teach courses of my own choosing), I have to say that this is a proverb which really resonates with me personally!
Under the heading compedes aureae, "golden shackles," in Erasmus's Adagia, this saying made its way into the emblematic tradition. You can see it illustrated here online in Whitney's English emblems, and I thought I would transcribe here a bit of the poem that goes with it in English:
It better is (wee say) a cotage poore to houlde,
Then for to lye in prison stronge, with fetters made of goulde.
Which shewes, that bondage is the prison of the minde:
And libertie the happie life, that is to man assign'de,
And thoughe that some preferre their bondage, for their gaines:
And richely are adorn'd in silkes, and preste with massie chaines.
You can also find the motif in Alciato's emblems, with am image of the poor courtier, his feet bound in stocks, with this little verse: Vana Palatinos quos educat aula clientes, / Dicitur auratis nectere compedibus., "It is said that the false court binds with gilded fetters those high officials whom it trains as vassals."
I like Whitney's little English poem better, I think, but Alciato's metaphor of the royal court and its constraints could definitely be adapted to the modern workplace or academic department!
So, hoping you have had a happily unshackled day, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1247. Stulti est compedes, licet aureas, amare.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
After the previous proverb about the golden reins and the horse, I thought this would be a good follow-up. The idea here, of course, is that the rich man is really foolish, having given up all kinds of freedom in exchange for that golden prosperity - a golden prosperity that for all its opulence is less valuable than an unfettered life of freedom. As someone who walked away from a much more lucrative and "respectable" line of work some years ago (resigning my tenure-track research job in order to teach courses of my own choosing), I have to say that this is a proverb which really resonates with me personally!
Under the heading compedes aureae, "golden shackles," in Erasmus's Adagia, this saying made its way into the emblematic tradition. You can see it illustrated here online in Whitney's English emblems, and I thought I would transcribe here a bit of the poem that goes with it in English:
It better is (wee say) a cotage poore to houlde,
Then for to lye in prison stronge, with fetters made of goulde.
Which shewes, that bondage is the prison of the minde:
And libertie the happie life, that is to man assign'de,
And thoughe that some preferre their bondage, for their gaines:
And richely are adorn'd in silkes, and preste with massie chaines.
You can also find the motif in Alciato's emblems, with am image of the poor courtier, his feet bound in stocks, with this little verse: Vana Palatinos quos educat aula clientes, / Dicitur auratis nectere compedibus., "It is said that the false court binds with gilded fetters those high officials whom it trains as vassals."
I like Whitney's little English poem better, I think, but Alciato's metaphor of the royal court and its constraints could definitely be adapted to the modern workplace or academic department!
So, hoping you have had a happily unshackled day, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1247. Stulti est compedes, licet aureas, amare.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
September 11, 2007
Non faciunt meliorem equum aurei freni
In English: Golden reins do not make a better horse.
After posting about donkeys, I thought I would do a saying with a horse in it! This saying also has the motif of "gold" which we saw in yesterday's proverb about the gold ring in the pig's snout.
Unlike pigs and donkeys, of course, the horse is not immediately an object of ridicule. A horse has virtues, but golden reins are not what bring out the virtues of the horse. As Seneca observes, the golden reins are just decoration - and decoration is nothing to be praised!
1875. Non faciunt meliorem equum aurei freni.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
After posting about donkeys, I thought I would do a saying with a horse in it! This saying also has the motif of "gold" which we saw in yesterday's proverb about the gold ring in the pig's snout.
Unlike pigs and donkeys, of course, the horse is not immediately an object of ridicule. A horse has virtues, but golden reins are not what bring out the virtues of the horse. As Seneca observes, the golden reins are just decoration - and decoration is nothing to be praised!
Quis est ergo hic animus? qui nullo bono nisi suo nitet. Quid enim est stultius quam in homine aliena laudare? quid eo dementius qui ea miratur quae ad alium transferri protinus possunt? Non faciunt meliorem equum aurei freni.Well said! This proverb always reminds me of the Aesop's fable about the boastful horse and his fine adornments. Here is the version in Barlow's Aesop:
And what is this soul? It is something which shines with no good unless its own good. What then could be more foolish than to praise in a man things which are not his own? What could be more crazy than someone being admired for things which can immediately be transferred to another person? Golden reins do not make a better horse.
Equus phaleris sellaque ornatus cum ingenti hinnitu per viam currebat. Currenti onustus Asellus forte obstabat, cui Equus fremebundus, Quid, inquit, Ignave, obsistis Equo? Cede, inquam, aut te proculcabo pedibus! Asellus rudere non ausus cedit tacitus. Equo provolanti crepat inguen. Tum cursui inutilis ornamentis spoliatur. Postea cum carro venientem Asinus affatur. Heus, mi Amice, quis ille ornatus est? Ubi aurea sella? Ubi splendidum frenum? Sic, Amice, necesse fuit evenire superbienti.Oh, how the mighty are fallen!So, in honor of the wise donkey in the fable, here is today's proverb read out loud:
A horse, adorned with trappings and a saddle, with a loud whinny ran through the street. As he was running along, a donkey bearing burdens ran into him by chance. The horse roared at the donkey: How dare you, lazy brute, stand in the way of a horse? Get out of my way, I say, or I will trample you with my hooves! The donkey did not dare to bray and silently gave way. As the horse ran along, he pulled his groin muscle. Then, useless for racing, he was stripped of his fine ornaments. Later on, when he came by pulling a wagon, the donkey addressed him: Ho there, my friend, what adornment is this? Where is your golden saddle? Where is your elegant bridle? That's how it goes, my Friend: it had to turn out this way for someone so boastful.
1875. Non faciunt meliorem equum aurei freni.
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.
Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.
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