Annus producit, non ager

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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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).

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.

In Seneca, too, this notion of change and identity comes through quite clearly:

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.

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, 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!

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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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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