In English: You are raising wolf cubs.
After yesterday's proverb about sheep, I thought a saying about wolves about be in order!
As with the other proverbs from this week, today's saying echoes an Aesop's fable with the same motif. Today's proverb is actually linked with a series of Aesop's fables about the foolishness of the shepherd faced with the wolf cub. These fables are attested in the Greek tradition, but no in Latin, so I will just supply you with the English translations (with a link to the Greek text for those of you who are interested!).
Chambry 313: A shepherd found some wolf cubs and he brought them up, thinking that the fully grown wolves would both guard his flock and steal other people's sheep to bring back to his sheepfold. But when the cubs grew up, the first thing they did was to destroy the man's own flock. The man groaned and said, 'It serves me right! Why didn't I kill them when they were little?'
Chambry 314: A shepherd found a new-born wolf cub. Taking it home, he raised it with his dogs. After the cub had grown up, he would join the dogs in the chase if a prowling wolf ever stole one of the sheep. When the dogs were no longer able to keep up with the other wolf and turned back for home (as sometimes happened), the wolf would continue the chase until he caught the other wolf and received an equal share of the prey, true to his wolf's nature. Then he too would go back home. If, however, no wolves came to seize the sheep, he would secretly slaughter one of the sheep and eat it together with the dogs. When the shepherd finally guessed what was happening, he hanged the wolf from a tree and killed him.
Chambry 315: A shepherd found a little wolf cub and raised it. Then, when the cub was bigger he taught it to steal from his neighbours' flocks. Once he had learned how to do this, the wolf said to the shepherd, 'Now that you have shown me how to steal, take care that many of your own sheep don't go missing!'
Each of these three fables imagines a different variation on the plot suggested by today's proverb, raising the cub of the wolf. In all three cases, as you can see, no good comes of doing that!
So, hoping you have not got a wolf in your sheepfold, wittingly or unwittingly, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1636. Alis luporum catulos.
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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August 31, 2007
August 30, 2007
Unus lanius non timet multas oves
In English: One butcher does not fear the many sheep.
I've been posting proverbs related to Aesop's fables this week, and I thought this would be a good one to include, since it resonates with a really profound Aesop's fable - the story of the butcher and the sheep - which is surprisingly little known. Here is the story in Steinhowel's version:
As today's proverb tells us, the butcher can indeed face many sheep without fear, exactly because the sheep will do nothing to help themselves, or each other.
This fable has always reminded me of the 'first they came' parable of Pastor Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984): 'First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.'
So, hoping we can recognize the butcher when we see him coming (or, better yet, hoping he does not come at all), here is today's proverb read out loud:
1441. Unus lanius non timet multas oves.
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've been posting proverbs related to Aesop's fables this week, and I thought this would be a good one to include, since it resonates with a really profound Aesop's fable - the story of the butcher and the sheep - which is surprisingly little known. Here is the story in Steinhowel's version:
Verveces in collecto cum essent una cum arietibus, lanium videntes inter se intrare dissimulaverunt. Cum autem unum ex se cernerent mortifera manu lanii teneri, trahi et interfici, etiam nec sic timuerunt, sed inter se incaute dicebant: Hunc tetigit et te [non]; dimittamus, trahat quem trahat. Novissime remansit unus, cum et ipse similiter se trahi videret, se dixisse lanio fertur: Digne sumus laniati singillatim ab uno, qui hoc non prospeximus, dum essemus simul et te in medio nostro positum aspeximus et capitinis impulsionibus quassatum, confractumque non occidimus.Here also is Caxton's English version of 1484: "A bocher entryd within a stable full of whethers / And after as the whethers sawe hym / none of them sayd one word / And the bocher toke the fyrst that he fonde / Thenne the whethers spake al to gyder and sayd / lete hym doo what he wylle / And thus the bocher tooke hem all one after another sauf one onely / And as he wold haue taken the last / the poure whether sayd to hym / Iustly I am worthy to be take / by cause I haue not holpen my felawes." The spelling may give you a headache, but you can still see the powerful point of this story, even in the old-fashioned orthography.
When the wethers were gathered together in a flock with the rams, they saw a butcher enter among them, but they pretended not to see him. Even when they saw one of their number seized by the death-dealing hand of the butcher, dragged off and slaughtered, they even so did not fear but recklessly said to one another: He took that one, and not you; we concede, let him take whom he takes. Finally one was left and when he himself likewise saw that he was being dragged off, he reportedly said to the butcher: Rightly we are butchered one after another, because we did not pay attention; when we were together and we saw you placed in our midst we should have killed you by grinding you with blows from our heads and smashing you to bits.
As today's proverb tells us, the butcher can indeed face many sheep without fear, exactly because the sheep will do nothing to help themselves, or each other.
This fable has always reminded me of the 'first they came' parable of Pastor Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984): 'First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.'
So, hoping we can recognize the butcher when we see him coming (or, better yet, hoping he does not come at all), here is today's proverb read out loud:
1441. Unus lanius non timet multas oves.
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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August 28, 2007
Aliorum medicus ipse ulceribus scates
In English: You, a doctor to others, are covered all over with sores.
This is a variation on the famous "physician, heal thyself" type of proverb. I decided to include this proverb today (from Erasmus's Adagia, 2.5.38) because it is related to an Aesop's fable about a frog, just like the fable from yesterday about the puffed-up frog.
The story goes that the frog had decided to set up shop as a doctor. Here is the version in Barlow's Aesop:
So, hoping your day has been entirely free of quacks - aquatic or otherwise - here is today's proverb read out loud:
1521. Aliorum medicus ipse ulceribus scates.
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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This is a variation on the famous "physician, heal thyself" type of proverb. I decided to include this proverb today (from Erasmus's Adagia, 2.5.38) because it is related to an Aesop's fable about a frog, just like the fable from yesterday about the puffed-up frog.
The story goes that the frog had decided to set up shop as a doctor. Here is the version in Barlow's Aesop:
Rana paludibus valedicens, et novo vivendi genere acquisito, in silvam gloriabunda sese tulit, et bestiarum coronis circumstipata, medicinae artem publice profitebatur, et in herbis quae ad corpora curanda pertinent, nobiliorem se vel Galeno vel Hippocrate esse clamitabat. Credula bestiarum gens fidem facile adhibebant, vulpe solummodo excepta, quae sic glorianti irridebat. "Insulsum vagumque animal! Quid tam vana blatteras? Quid artem nobilem prae te fers quam minime calles? Livida pallidaque - illa tua labra respice: quin domi abi, et teipsum cura, medice! Deinde ad nos redeas meliora forsan de te speraturos. Nihil respondente rana, sed tacitis secum gemente suspiriis, tota bestiarum cachinnis resonabat silva.You can see a great illustration for this story by Francis Barlow, featuring all kinds of animals looking on at the dialogue between the fox and the frog - you can even see a squirrel and a monkey up in the tree observing!
The frog said goodbye to her swamp and adopted a new mode of life, and quite puffed up with pride she went into the forest. Girded round with the beasts' wreaths of honor, she professed publicly the art of medicine, declaring which herbs which are useful in curing the body's diseases, shouting that she was more worthy of honor than Galen or Hippocrates. The gullible animal kingdom easily put their trust in the frog - except only for the fox, who laughed at the boasting frog. "You witless and giddy creature! Why do you babble such foolish things? Why do you assume this worthy art which you know absolutely nothing about? Sickly green and pale - look at your own lips: why don't you just go home and cure yourself, doctor! And then you might come back to us, when we may perhaps expect something more useful from you." The frog said nothing in response, but groaned with quiet sighs, and all the woods resounded with the laughter of the beasts.
So, hoping your day has been entirely free of quacks - aquatic or otherwise - here is today's proverb read out loud:
1521. Aliorum medicus ipse ulceribus scates.
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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August 27, 2007
Inflat se tamquam rana
In English: He's puffing himself up like a frog.
I've been working on Aesop's fables for another project lately (an edition of Barlow's Aesop for Latin students - Bolchazy-Carducci has agreed to take it on!), so I thought I would indulge myself by doing some proverbs here in the blog that go hand-in-hand with some Aesop's fables.
This saying about the frog can stand on its own, of course. Everyone knows how funny a frog looks when it puffs itself up, which provides a fine metaphor for a person puffed up with his own sense of self-importance.
Thanks to Aesop, there is also a great little fable that tells a story about a frog who puffed herself up to extremes! Here's the version in Steinhowel's Aesop, and you can see some great Renaissance illustrations from several different editions online:
As a huge over-grown Oxe was grazing in a Meadow, an old envious Frog that stood gaping at him hard by, call’d out to her little ones, to take Notice of the Bulk of that monstrous Beast; and see, says she, if I don’t make myself now the bigger of the two. So she strain’d once, and twice, and went still swelling on and on, till in the Conclusion she forc’d herself, and burst.
THE MORAL. Betwixt Pride, Envy, and Ambition, Men fansy themselves to be bigger than they are, and other People to be less: And this Tumour swells itself at last till it makes all fly.
So, hoping your day has been free of puffed-up frogs, literal or metaphorical, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1278. Inflat se tamquam rana.
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've been working on Aesop's fables for another project lately (an edition of Barlow's Aesop for Latin students - Bolchazy-Carducci has agreed to take it on!), so I thought I would indulge myself by doing some proverbs here in the blog that go hand-in-hand with some Aesop's fables.
This saying about the frog can stand on its own, of course. Everyone knows how funny a frog looks when it puffs itself up, which provides a fine metaphor for a person puffed up with his own sense of self-importance.
Thanks to Aesop, there is also a great little fable that tells a story about a frog who puffed herself up to extremes! Here's the version in Steinhowel's Aesop, and you can see some great Renaissance illustrations from several different editions online:
In prato quaedam rana vidit pascentem bovem, putabat se posse fieri talem, si rugosam pellem inflaret. At natos suos interrogavit: Sum ne ipsa quantus est bos? Dixerunt: None. Iterum inflavit se potius et dixit suis: Quid modo? Responderunt: Nihil simile. Tertio cum se inflaret rupta pelle mortua est, ideo vulgo dicitur: Noli te inflare, ne crepes.There are many versions of this story in both the ancient Latin and Greek traditions. As always, the wonderful 17th-century writer Sir Roger L'Estrange provides a lively English version:
In a meadow a certain frog saw a bull who was feeding there. She thought she could be like the bull, if she pulled up her wrinkly skin. She asked her children: Am I not as big as the bull? They said: No. She puffed herself up again even more and said to her children: What about this way? They said: Nothing like him. The third time when she puffed herself up, her skin burst open and she died, hence the common saying: Don't puff yourself up; you might burst.
As a huge over-grown Oxe was grazing in a Meadow, an old envious Frog that stood gaping at him hard by, call’d out to her little ones, to take Notice of the Bulk of that monstrous Beast; and see, says she, if I don’t make myself now the bigger of the two. So she strain’d once, and twice, and went still swelling on and on, till in the Conclusion she forc’d herself, and burst.
THE MORAL. Betwixt Pride, Envy, and Ambition, Men fansy themselves to be bigger than they are, and other People to be less: And this Tumour swells itself at last till it makes all fly.
So, hoping your day has been free of puffed-up frogs, literal or metaphorical, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1278. Inflat se tamquam rana.
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.
August 24, 2007
Felix alterius cui sunt documenta flagella
In English: Happy is the man for whom another man's lashings are a lesson.
As you can see, today's proverb is a much more visceral variation on yesterday's saying: Alienis malis discimus, "We learn from others' mistakes."
In today's saying, it is not so much that we learn from other people's mistakes, but rather from the brutal punishment that someone else suffers as a consequence of the mistake that he made. The flagella are "whippings" or "lashings," as you can see in the English word "flagellation."
Students of Latin will recognize the -ellum suffix here as a Latin diminutive form. A word like flagellum shows that diminutives were not always something sweet or endearing. The word flagellum is a diminutive of the word flagrum, meaning a "whip, scourge, lash."
The same root flag- shows up in the verb affligere, "to damage, crush, beat down," as in the English verb "afflict" and the noun "affliction."
The more you ponder today's saying, the more grim it becomes, because you realize that the punishment being meted out derives its power from being public. The Roman master who whipped his slave was not doing that simply in order to punish the slave, but in order to terrorize the other slaves who witnessed the event, so that the flagella, the "strokes of the whip" applied to one slave would serve as "lessons," documenta for the other slaves.
Of course, if you take this metaphorically, and don't think about actual lashings and whippings, today's proverb becomes more palatable. When you see that someone has not benefited from some kind of action and instead has suffered from it, you can learn to avoid that action yourself. Good enough. But when you reflect on the scene, no doubt repeated millions of times in the history of mankind, when a master whipped his slave publicly in order to terrorize the other slaves and "teach them a lesson," you realize what a harsh reality is reflected in the visceral language of today's saying.
So, hoping that no flagella of any kind, literal or metaphorical, are threatening you in any way, here is today's proverb read out loud:
925. Felix alterius cui sunt documenta flagella.
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.
As you can see, today's proverb is a much more visceral variation on yesterday's saying: Alienis malis discimus, "We learn from others' mistakes."
In today's saying, it is not so much that we learn from other people's mistakes, but rather from the brutal punishment that someone else suffers as a consequence of the mistake that he made. The flagella are "whippings" or "lashings," as you can see in the English word "flagellation."
Students of Latin will recognize the -ellum suffix here as a Latin diminutive form. A word like flagellum shows that diminutives were not always something sweet or endearing. The word flagellum is a diminutive of the word flagrum, meaning a "whip, scourge, lash."
The same root flag- shows up in the verb affligere, "to damage, crush, beat down," as in the English verb "afflict" and the noun "affliction."
The more you ponder today's saying, the more grim it becomes, because you realize that the punishment being meted out derives its power from being public. The Roman master who whipped his slave was not doing that simply in order to punish the slave, but in order to terrorize the other slaves who witnessed the event, so that the flagella, the "strokes of the whip" applied to one slave would serve as "lessons," documenta for the other slaves.
Of course, if you take this metaphorically, and don't think about actual lashings and whippings, today's proverb becomes more palatable. When you see that someone has not benefited from some kind of action and instead has suffered from it, you can learn to avoid that action yourself. Good enough. But when you reflect on the scene, no doubt repeated millions of times in the history of mankind, when a master whipped his slave publicly in order to terrorize the other slaves and "teach them a lesson," you realize what a harsh reality is reflected in the visceral language of today's saying.
So, hoping that no flagella of any kind, literal or metaphorical, are threatening you in any way, here is today's proverb read out loud:
925. Felix alterius cui sunt documenta flagella.
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.
August 23, 2007
Alienis malis discimus
In English: We learn from others' mistakes.
I thought this saying would make a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb, Discipulus est prioris posterior dies, "The following day is the student of the previous day." In yesterday's saying, the idea was that you learn from your own mistakes. If something did not work out on one day, you can do better the next day.
Today's saying is a bit more opportunistic! It is better to learn from others' mistakes, rather than from your own mistakes. If you can learn from the mistakes that other people make, you can perhaps completely avoid making that same mistake yourself.
This is the notion of the "negative exemplum," as you can see illustrated in hundreds of Aesop's fables. Typically, an Aesop's fable is not about some positive hero who gives you a good example to imitate. Instead, an Aesop's fable is usually about some foolish creature who makes a mistake, often a fatal mistake! The idea is that you learn from that creature's mistake in order to avoid making the same mistake yourself, according to the theory of learning espoused in today's saying.
If you approach the fables of Aesop with this idea in mind, it often gives you a new perspective on the inner dynamics of the story. Take the tortoise and the hare, for example, a very famous and still very popular fable. Many people today assume that the tortoise is the hero of the story, and they derive a positive moral from the tortoise's victory over the hare: slow and steady wins the race.
In fact, the traditional version of the fable is not so much about the positive example set by the tortoise but the negative example set by the hare. The tortoise beat the hare in the race because the hare was lazy. Moral of the story: don't be lazy! Learn from the mistake of the hare, and don't snooze. You snooze, you lose.
No matter how virtuous the tortoise might be, he is not likely to beat a hare in a race, unless the hare makes some serious mistake, after all.
Of course, the tortoise could also cheat! (So much for the morally virtuous tortoise!) If you have never read a version of the story based on the tortoise cheating, you should take a look at this fine Cherokee version of the story, or this version in the Brothers Grimm, with a hedgehog instead of a tortoise.
Meanwhile, hoping your day today has not been a negative exemplum either for yourself or for others, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1645. Alienis malis discimus.
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 make a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb, Discipulus est prioris posterior dies, "The following day is the student of the previous day." In yesterday's saying, the idea was that you learn from your own mistakes. If something did not work out on one day, you can do better the next day.
Today's saying is a bit more opportunistic! It is better to learn from others' mistakes, rather than from your own mistakes. If you can learn from the mistakes that other people make, you can perhaps completely avoid making that same mistake yourself.
This is the notion of the "negative exemplum," as you can see illustrated in hundreds of Aesop's fables. Typically, an Aesop's fable is not about some positive hero who gives you a good example to imitate. Instead, an Aesop's fable is usually about some foolish creature who makes a mistake, often a fatal mistake! The idea is that you learn from that creature's mistake in order to avoid making the same mistake yourself, according to the theory of learning espoused in today's saying.
If you approach the fables of Aesop with this idea in mind, it often gives you a new perspective on the inner dynamics of the story. Take the tortoise and the hare, for example, a very famous and still very popular fable. Many people today assume that the tortoise is the hero of the story, and they derive a positive moral from the tortoise's victory over the hare: slow and steady wins the race.
In fact, the traditional version of the fable is not so much about the positive example set by the tortoise but the negative example set by the hare. The tortoise beat the hare in the race because the hare was lazy. Moral of the story: don't be lazy! Learn from the mistake of the hare, and don't snooze. You snooze, you lose.
No matter how virtuous the tortoise might be, he is not likely to beat a hare in a race, unless the hare makes some serious mistake, after all.
Of course, the tortoise could also cheat! (So much for the morally virtuous tortoise!) If you have never read a version of the story based on the tortoise cheating, you should take a look at this fine Cherokee version of the story, or this version in the Brothers Grimm, with a hedgehog instead of a tortoise.
Meanwhile, hoping your day today has not been a negative exemplum either for yourself or for others, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1645. Alienis malis discimus.
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.
August 21, 2007
Discipulus est prioris posterior dies
In English: The following day is the student of the previous day.
Like yesterday's proverb about school and learning, I thought this would be a good selection for those of you who are embarking on a new school year this week, as I am. You could call today's proverb the motto of lifelong learning in Latin!
You can see this motto accompanied by a very cute bunny rabbit from an unusual pack of Tarot cards, the The Fairy Tarots by Antonio Lupatelli.
The person commenting on the card at that webpage makes a bit of a muddle of the Latin: "Prioris refers to the first of two things - but it is the genitive case (belonging to the first of two things). Posterior is the later of two things and is an adjective modifying Dies = day. So I think it means something like - discipline is the first priority at the end of the day. But I am not secure in that."
The problem is that while the Latin word discipulus looks something like the English word "discipline," it is actually the Latin word for "student" (and also the origin of the English word "disciple"). So no, the motto does not mean that "discipline is the first priority at the end of the day." Instead, it means simply that the posterior dies, "the following day" discipulus est, "is the student" prioris "of the preceding day."
In other words, yesterday is the teacher of tomorrow!
There is an even more simple version of this saying, but one that is so simple as to be a bit enigmatic: Dies diem docet, "Day teaches day."
So, hoping that in the course of your day today you have learned a good lesson that you can put to use tomorrow, here is today's proverb read out loud:
581. Discipulus est prioris posterior 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.
Like yesterday's proverb about school and learning, I thought this would be a good selection for those of you who are embarking on a new school year this week, as I am. You could call today's proverb the motto of lifelong learning in Latin!
You can see this motto accompanied by a very cute bunny rabbit from an unusual pack of Tarot cards, the The Fairy Tarots by Antonio Lupatelli.
The person commenting on the card at that webpage makes a bit of a muddle of the Latin: "Prioris refers to the first of two things - but it is the genitive case (belonging to the first of two things). Posterior is the later of two things and is an adjective modifying Dies = day. So I think it means something like - discipline is the first priority at the end of the day. But I am not secure in that."
The problem is that while the Latin word discipulus looks something like the English word "discipline," it is actually the Latin word for "student" (and also the origin of the English word "disciple"). So no, the motto does not mean that "discipline is the first priority at the end of the day." Instead, it means simply that the posterior dies, "the following day" discipulus est, "is the student" prioris "of the preceding day."
In other words, yesterday is the teacher of tomorrow!
There is an even more simple version of this saying, but one that is so simple as to be a bit enigmatic: Dies diem docet, "Day teaches day."
So, hoping that in the course of your day today you have learned a good lesson that you can put to use tomorrow, here is today's proverb read out loud:
581. Discipulus est prioris posterior 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.
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