February 20, 2011

Vade ad formicam, o piger


Recording also available at iPadio using this link.

Today's saying is Vade ad formicam, o piger, et considera vias eius, et disce sapientiam. In English: "Go to the ant, you lazy-bones, and study her ways, and learn wisdom."

After yesterday's grand saying about the enormity of past, present, and future, I thought I would zoom in on something very small today: the ant, who gathers up her food, grain by grain, toting it back to the anthill. Just think of those grains as being knowledge you gather and store in your mind for the future! This saying comes from the Biblical Book of Proverbs, and it urges us to look to the ant for an example of hard work and industriousness. We tend to think of wisdom as some great and grand thing, but the tiny little ants show us what we need to do: work, and work together, in order to achieve great things. So, go to the ant, if you're feeling lazy, Vade ad formicam, o piger, watch what she does, considera vias eius, and learn wisdom, disce sapientiam.

In terms of proverb style, this is another one of those nice triple proverbs: vade ... considera ... disce, three nice imperatives, all in a row.

For those of you who are fans of macrons, here is the Latin written with macrons:

Vāde ad formīcam, ō piger, et consīderā viās eius, et disce sapientiam.



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