Medicus curat, natura sanat

In English: A doctor administers the cure; nature does the healing.

I thought this would be a good follow-up to yesterday's "medical" proverb. Today's proverb is based on a simple parallel structure: on the one hand there is the medicus, the medical doctor, who administers the cure and takes care of the patient, curat, but it is natura, nature, who actually makes the patient healthy, sanat.

A fuller form of this proverb is medicus curat, natura sanat morbos, where the verbs curat and sanat are given an explicit object: morbos, sicknesses.

There are some good etymological items to notice in these two Latin verbs. The Latin verb curare means to take care of, in the sense of being concerned for something. This is indeed where we get the English word "cure," which is generally used in a medical context (although "manicure" and "pedicure" are admittedly not medical procedures!), but the Latin word has a range of meaning that extends far beyond the medical context. You can get a sense of the broader meaning of the Latin cura, if you look at some other English words derived from this same root, such as the "curator" who takes care of things. Even the English word "curious" is derived from this root, because a curious person is concerned with things - especially things that other people might not pay attention to at all. The English word "secure" is a person who has no cares or concerns, from the Latin se-curus, without care.

The other Latin verb in today's proverb, sanare, means "to make whole, make healthy," from the adjectival root sanus, meaning "healthy" and also "sane, rational." You can see both meanings of the san- root at work in English derivatives. When people go to a "sanatorium," they are hoping to get well and healthy (and hopefully everything is appropriate "sanitized" at the sanatorium), but someone who is "insane" is suffering specifically from mental illness.

So, hoping that everyone is feeling both sane and secure, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1087. Medicus curat, natura sanat.

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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Optima medicina temperantia est.

In English: Moderation is the best medicine.

I thought this might be a good proverb to post on this day famed for over-eating. So, if you have not already had seconds on the pumpkin pie yet, you could use this proverb as a warning to put down that fork!

This proverb comes early on in my Latin Via Proverbs book given that the grammar is staggeringly simple. There is no verb except for the simple est, "is," with only first declension noun phrases: optima medicina, "the best medicine," and temperantia, "moderation." This is the kind of proverb that Latin students can learn on their very first day of Latin class.

This proverb is also representative of a huge body of Latin proverbs praising the middle way, the "golden mean," aurea mediocritas in Latin, not too much and not too little. The key word here is temperantia, "moderation," which is derived from the Latin word tempus, which means "time," but which also refers to the right time, the appropriate time, etc. You can think about the musical term "tempo," also derived from Latin tempus, via Italian. As anyone who plays music knows, the right tempo is about going not too fast, but not too slow.

So, if you want to translate this Latin proverb with English cognates you could say "the optimum medicine is tempo," not too fast, and not too slow.

And here is today's proverb read out loud:

20. Optima medicina temperantia est.

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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Calvior cucurbita

In English: Balder than a pumpkin.

I thought a saying about a pumpkin would be an appropriate choice as the Thanksgiving feast day is upon us, with attendant pumpkin pie.

A pumpkin is, indeed, remarkably bald. In English, the standard comparison for baldness seems to be "bald as a coot," but I don't really like that comparison as much: according to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, coots have a prominent bald patch, but since I've never seen a coot, much less a coot up close, the comparison doesn't work for me (although there is a nice picture of a coot here, showing the bald patch).

The Latin phrase is much more effective, I think - balder than a pumpkin: that must be very bald indeed! The Roman author Apuleius used the phrase in his Metamorphoses in the part devoted to the story of Cupid and Psyche, referring to an old man who was balder than a pumpkin.

The Latin word calvus, meaning "bald," is itself a very interesting word, which gives us the English "Calvary." Yes, for all of you who as children got the words "Cavalry" and "cavalry" mixed up, here's the etymological explanation that could have saved you.

The English word "cavalry" derives ultimately from the Latin caballus, "horse," with the -b- changing to a -v- over time. So the cavalry (*cabal-ry*) is composed of soldiers on caballi, on horses.

The English word "Calvary" derives from the Latin calvaria, "skull," which is in turn derived from calvus, "bald." Indeed, if there is anything balder than a pumpkin, it would indeed be a human skull! So, the place where Jesus was crucified is called Calvaria in the Latin translation of the Bible, imitating the Aramaic name, Golgotha, which meant "skull." In English, we took over the word "Calvary," but I would guess that most people do not realize that this is from the Latin word for "skull," itself based on the word for "bald," calvus. Once you learn this, it's easy to keep straight the English words "cavalry" and Calvary. If you are interested in learning more about the legends associated with the Calvary "skull," you can find a good discussion at the Catholic Encyclopedia online, including the fascinating legend that Golgotha was so named because the skull of Adam had been deposited there.

Meanwhile, with happy pumpkin thoughts for Thanksgiving, here is today's proverb read out loud:

608. Calvior cucurbita.

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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Excelsior!

In English: Higher!

This is a one-word saying that serves as the motto of the state of New York (you can read more about state mottoes in Latin at the Bestiaria Latina blog). The motto is featured prominently in the New York state flag and the New York state seal.

It was the phrase "Excelsior" on the New York state seal which inspired a poem entitled "Excelsior!" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is a romantic, mystical poem about a young man climbing the Alps, bearing a banner "with the strange device, Excelsior!" He sees the happy houses of the village, but he continues climbing. An old man warns him of the dangers, but he keeps climbing. A beautiful maiden begs him to stay with her, but he keeps climbing. A peasant tells him to watch out for avalanches, and he keeps climbing, ever higher. Then the next day he was found in the snow, grasping the banner in his frozen hand:

There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star,
Excelsior!

"Excelsior" is also the title of a poem by Walt Whitman in his book Leaves of Grass. It is a a very Walt-Whitmanesque poem, as you can see from this excerpt:

Who has gone farthest? For lo! have not I gone farther?
And who has been just? For I would be the most just person of the earth;
And who most cautious? For I would be more cautious;
And who has been happiest? O I think it is I! I think no one was ever happier than I;
And who has lavish’d all? For I lavish constantly the best I have;
And who has been firmest? For I would be firmer;
And who proudest? For I think I have reason to be the proudest son alive—for I am the son of the brawny and tall-topt city;
And who has been bold and true? For I would be the boldest and truest being of the universe; [...]

Yet my reason for choosing Excelsior as today's saying is not because of Longfellow or Whitman, but because of the absolutely delightful film The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain. I watched this film for the first time this week, and found it to be absolutely enchanting. For those of you who have not seen the film, it is about a village in Wales which faces an unexpected crisis: their "mountain" is in danger of being classified as a hill, unless they can make it a little bit higher. Excelsior! It's a wonderful movie, and at the very end there is a ghostly voice that says "Higher!" which immediately made me think of the Latin saying Excelsior.

So, in honor of both New York and Wales, here is today's proverb read out loud:

607. Excelsior.

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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Hiatus brevis

I'm out of town for a few days and not easily able to update my audio blogs, but I'll be back online soon. Meanwhile, the other Bestiaria Latina blogs are going strong; you can see a round-up of the latest posts at Bestiaria Latina Omnia: News.

Animum debes mutare, non caelum

In English: You should change your state of mind, not the sky.

In other words, a change of scenery will not necessarily be able to induce a change of feeling. If you have troubles, just "getting away" on vacation, say, will not necessarily let you get away from those troubles. The saying is adapted from the Roman poet Horace, in his Epistle 1.11: caelum, non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt, "those who run across the sea change their sky but not their state of mind."

This is very true advice and it also features the delightful metaphor of "changing the sky" as a metaphor for travel. I'm about to embark on a little trip this weekend, so I will be changing sky myself for a few days - luckily I'm not trying to accomplish a change of mood in the process. Just doing some pre-Thanksgiving family visiting!

There's a delightful little fable by the medieval preacher Odo of Cheriton which cites this bit of advice as the moral to the story. You can read the Latin online at aesopica.net:

A stork once got into an argument with his wife and he pecked out her eye with his beak. The stork was ashamed that he had done her such a great injury, so he flew off into another land. The crow ran into him and asked the reason for his journey. The stork said that he had pecked out his wife's eye with his beak. The crow replied: "Don't you still have the same beak?" The stork said yes. The crow then said: "So why are you running away, since, wherever you go, you carry your beak with you?" This is true also for those who commit many sins and who run away into another land or into a monastery. They nevertheless always carry with them their beak, their wickedness, their means of sinning, the Devil contained inside them. They change the sky, not their state of mind. [...]

As far as I know, this story of the stork and his wife is found only here in Odo; I have not seen it in any other medieval fable collection.

So, thinking about the wise words of that crow, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1552. Animum debes mutare, non caelum.

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

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio. You can also hear the Horatian version of this saying, coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt read aloud at a Polish website: Wladyslawa Kopalinskiego Slownik wyraz?w obcych i zwrot?w obcojezycznych (weblink).

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Nascimur uno modo, multis morimur.

In English: We are born one way, we die in many (ways).

Since I have posted some sayings from Latin epitaphs over the past couple of days, I thought I would post this saying, also about death, which also happens to be one of my favorite Latin proverbs. Proverbs often work by a parallel structure and strongly contrasting meaning, which is just how today's proverb works: uno, on the one hand, the way of birth, and multis on the other hand, the ways of death.

The saying comes from one of the Controversiae of the rhetorician known as Seneca the Elder (NOT to be confused with his son, the philosopher Seneca), and he goes on to provide a list of the ways of death: laqueus, gladius, praeceps locus, venenum, naufragium, mille aliae mortes insidiantur huic miserrimae animae, "the noose, the sword, a steep place, poison, shipwreck, a thousand other deaths lie in way for the most wretched soul."

Seneca's list makes me think of that haunting song by Leonard Cohen which also explores the many ways of death:

And who by fire,
who by water,
who in the sunshine,
who in the night time,
who by high ordeal,
who by common trial,
who in your merry merry month of may,
who by very slow decay
and who shall I say is calling?
And who in her lonely slip,
who by barbiturate,
who in these realms of love,
who by something blunt,
and who by avalanche,
who by powder,
who for his greed,
who for his hunger,
and who shall I say is calling?
And who by brave assent,
who by accident,
who in solitude,
who in this mirror,
who by his lady's command,
who by his own hand,
who in mortal chains,
who in power,
and who shall I say is calling?

Cohen's song seems, in turn, to have been inspired by the Unetaneh Tokef, a portion of the Yom Kippur service, the liturgy for the Jewish Day of Atonement. Here is an excerpt:

On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed,
And on Yom Kippur it is sealed.
How many shall pass away and how many shall be born,
Who shall live and who shall die,
Who shall reach the end of his days and who shall not,
Who shall perish by water and who by fire,
Who by sword and who by wild beast,
Who by famine and who by thirst,
Who by earthquake and who by plague,
Who by strangulation and who by stoning...

Many ways indeed, multi modi, just as today's proverb suggests, without spelling it out in grisly detail.

So here is today's proverb read out loud, and here is a YouTube video of the Leonard Cohen song, too!



3039. Nascimur uno modo, multis morimur.

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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