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:

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.

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.

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!

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.

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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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