In English: It is a sweeter thing for you to become wise from others' mistakes than for others to become wise from your mistakes.
I'm working on the final draft of the manuscript of my new Aesop's fables book for Bolchazy-Carducci (based on Barlow's Aesop of 1687), so of course I've got Aesop's fables even more on the brain than usual. That is what prompted me to choose this saying for today, which expresses the basic principle of the negative exemplum, learning from the mistakes made by others. The idea is that if you can look at the mistakes the foolish characters make the in the fables, you might be able to avoid making the same mistakes in your own life.
The alternative, of course, is that you could make mistakes which could prove to be instructive for others! That is the less desirable option: far better that others make mistakes which you can learn from, rather than vice versa.
Today's saying manages to express that very nicely, with the elegance of a Latin parallel construction and some implied words: Te de aliis (fieri doctum/doctam) quam alios de te suavius est fieri doctos. The Latin does not actually contain the word "mistakes" but simply says de te, "from you," and de aliis, "from others." That seemed so very strange in English that I added in the word "mistakes," although that does detract from the elegance of the Latin, with its beautifully paralleled pronouns, te de aliis quam alios de te....
The saying itself is a very old one, and can be found in the Persa, that delightful comedy by Plautus, where it is none other than the doomed pimp, Dordalus, who utters the words: sed te de aliis, quam alios de te suaviust fieri doctos. The pimp is speaking with the tricky slave Toxilus, the one who will, in fact, lead Dordalus to commit a series of terrible mistakes by the end of the play, so that he is eventually tricked out of his own money by Toxilus, who then uses the money to buy the freedom of his own girlfriend from the pimp.
So, hoping you find yourself in the role of Toxilus rather than Dordalus in the theater of life, here is today's proverb read out loud:
2200. Te de aliis quam alios de te suavius est fieri doctos.
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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March 06, 2008
March 03, 2008
Tranquillo quilibet gubernator est
In English: When it's calm, anybody can be the helmsman.
I thought I would post this proverb à propos of what might be the last big primary elections on Tuesday. In particular, I was thinking about a campaign ad being run by the Clinton campaign, and being made directly rebutted by the Obama campaign, about just who is most qualified to pick up that emergency phone when it rings in the White House at 3 a.m. to announce some urgent crisis. As the Latin saying tells us here, when you are sailing on a calm sea, tranquillo, anybody can steer the ship - and what the proverb thus implies, of course, is that when the sea is not calm, not just anybody is going to be qualified to pilot the ship.
The reason I was prompted to choose this proverb in particular is because it features the Latin word gubernator, the helmsman or pilot of the ship. Of course, there is where we get our words for governance; the English word "governor" and all the related words (govern, government, and so on) are direct descendants of the Latin gubernator - so of course, I had to laugh when they were calling Schwarzenegger the "governator" of California - that sounded very Latin indeed!
The Latin itself comes from a Greek word, κυβερνήτης (kubernetes), which morphed into Latin, the unvoiced K being replaced by a voiced G (perhaps through Etruscan), and the Greek -etes suffix replaced by Latin -ator. The English derivatives have gov- instead of the Latin gub-, except for the later addition to the English language, "gubernatorial," which comes more directly from the Latin.
Through another route, the Greek word κυβερνήτης reaches English in the word "cybernetics," where the Greek KUB remains intact, as English cyb-. Cybernetics is an abstract field of control and system theory, meaning the "study of the structure of complex systems, especially communication processes, control mechanisms and feedback principles" (wikipedia). The term "cybernetics" was coined by Norbert Wiener, who studied communication and control processes in both animals and machines, although the word in Greek was already used by Plato; κυβερνητικός (kubernetikos = cybernetic) meant someone good at steering, guiding, governing - steering that proverbial ship of state!
So, happy voting to those of you who live in this Tuesday's primary states! And here is today's proverb read out loud:
951. Tranquillo quilibet gubernator 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.
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 I would post this proverb à propos of what might be the last big primary elections on Tuesday. In particular, I was thinking about a campaign ad being run by the Clinton campaign, and being made directly rebutted by the Obama campaign, about just who is most qualified to pick up that emergency phone when it rings in the White House at 3 a.m. to announce some urgent crisis. As the Latin saying tells us here, when you are sailing on a calm sea, tranquillo, anybody can steer the ship - and what the proverb thus implies, of course, is that when the sea is not calm, not just anybody is going to be qualified to pilot the ship.
The reason I was prompted to choose this proverb in particular is because it features the Latin word gubernator, the helmsman or pilot of the ship. Of course, there is where we get our words for governance; the English word "governor" and all the related words (govern, government, and so on) are direct descendants of the Latin gubernator - so of course, I had to laugh when they were calling Schwarzenegger the "governator" of California - that sounded very Latin indeed!
The Latin itself comes from a Greek word, κυβερνήτης (kubernetes), which morphed into Latin, the unvoiced K being replaced by a voiced G (perhaps through Etruscan), and the Greek -etes suffix replaced by Latin -ator. The English derivatives have gov- instead of the Latin gub-, except for the later addition to the English language, "gubernatorial," which comes more directly from the Latin.
Through another route, the Greek word κυβερνήτης reaches English in the word "cybernetics," where the Greek KUB remains intact, as English cyb-. Cybernetics is an abstract field of control and system theory, meaning the "study of the structure of complex systems, especially communication processes, control mechanisms and feedback principles" (wikipedia). The term "cybernetics" was coined by Norbert Wiener, who studied communication and control processes in both animals and machines, although the word in Greek was already used by Plato; κυβερνητικός (kubernetikos = cybernetic) meant someone good at steering, guiding, governing - steering that proverbial ship of state!
So, happy voting to those of you who live in this Tuesday's primary states! And here is today's proverb read out loud:
951. Tranquillo quilibet gubernator 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.
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.
February 18, 2008
Errores medicorum terra tegit
In English: The earth covers the doctors' mistakes.
Yes, as so many of you have perhaps experience, this has been the winter of the cold and flu season from hell! My husband got sick and then I got sick but now, hallelujah, we are both pretty much back to normal. In honor of the medical system's inability to do much about the so-called common cold, however uncommonly bad it has been this year, I chose today's proverb.
This is a saying you will find in all the major European languages. You can find it in Spanish, "los errores de los médicos, la tierra los cubre" and in Italian, "gli errori dei medici, la terra li copre" and also in Polish: "błędy lekarza pokrywa ziemia." I also found this similar saying in Polish about young doctors in particular: "nowy lekarz, nowy cmentarz," "a new doctor, a new cementary."
That last Polish example rhymes (lekarz-cmentarz), which is what gives it its charm, just as the Latin proverb relies on its nicely alliterative terra tegit to give the saying a truly proverbial feel. Proverbs do not gain their currency just from what they say, but from how they say it. This particular Latin proverb relies on its elegant expression (terra tegit), and also the dissonance of what exactly a doctor's error consists of. An error, according to the metaphor of this proverb, is not a mistake in judgment, an action (or inaction) which resulted in a negative outcome. No, quite literally, an error is a human corpse, a body that is covered up by the earth itself.
It reminds me of the body of Abel, murdered by his brother Cain. Of course, the earth communicated to God about that particular body: vox sanguinis fratris tui clamat ad me de terra, "the voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the earth." The earth may cover that body, but the voice of the murdered man's blood can still call out to God from the earth.
In English, there is a nice variation on the Latin saying about the errores medicorum which is about doctors and rich men, two of the favorite targets of proverbial acumen, combined here into one: "Physicians' fault are covered with earth, and rich men's with money."
Well, I survived my cold without going to the doctor... which is a good thing, since I am not a rich man either! Ha ha. In any case, I'm glad to be blogging again this week, more or less fully recovered!
Hoping you have avoided any possible doctor's errors in this season of cold and flu, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1763. Errores medicorum terra tegit.
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.
Yes, as so many of you have perhaps experience, this has been the winter of the cold and flu season from hell! My husband got sick and then I got sick but now, hallelujah, we are both pretty much back to normal. In honor of the medical system's inability to do much about the so-called common cold, however uncommonly bad it has been this year, I chose today's proverb.
This is a saying you will find in all the major European languages. You can find it in Spanish, "los errores de los médicos, la tierra los cubre" and in Italian, "gli errori dei medici, la terra li copre" and also in Polish: "błędy lekarza pokrywa ziemia." I also found this similar saying in Polish about young doctors in particular: "nowy lekarz, nowy cmentarz," "a new doctor, a new cementary."
That last Polish example rhymes (lekarz-cmentarz), which is what gives it its charm, just as the Latin proverb relies on its nicely alliterative terra tegit to give the saying a truly proverbial feel. Proverbs do not gain their currency just from what they say, but from how they say it. This particular Latin proverb relies on its elegant expression (terra tegit), and also the dissonance of what exactly a doctor's error consists of. An error, according to the metaphor of this proverb, is not a mistake in judgment, an action (or inaction) which resulted in a negative outcome. No, quite literally, an error is a human corpse, a body that is covered up by the earth itself.
It reminds me of the body of Abel, murdered by his brother Cain. Of course, the earth communicated to God about that particular body: vox sanguinis fratris tui clamat ad me de terra, "the voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the earth." The earth may cover that body, but the voice of the murdered man's blood can still call out to God from the earth.
In English, there is a nice variation on the Latin saying about the errores medicorum which is about doctors and rich men, two of the favorite targets of proverbial acumen, combined here into one: "Physicians' fault are covered with earth, and rich men's with money."
Well, I survived my cold without going to the doctor... which is a good thing, since I am not a rich man either! Ha ha. In any case, I'm glad to be blogging again this week, more or less fully recovered!
Hoping you have avoided any possible doctor's errors in this season of cold and flu, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1763. Errores medicorum terra tegit.
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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February 06, 2008
Nihil annis velocius
In English: Nothing is faster than the years.
I've been very remiss about blogging here (although I have been blogging away at various Latin things, as you can see at Bestiaria Latina). February 7 is the Chinese New Year, though, so I thought I would post a proverb here in honor of that change of year. Happy Year of the Rat!
Today's saying, about the swiftness of the passage of time, is derived from a passage in Ovid's Metamorphoses. It comes from Book X when the great bard Orpheus has just told the sad and terrible story of Myrrha, the unfortunate woman who was seized by sexual desire for her father and thus became pregnant with his child.
Transformed into a tree, Myrrha gave birth to that child who was none other than Adonis, who would become the lover of Venus herself. Here is what Orpheus sings:
So, with a salute to the quickly passing years - goodbye Year of the Pig and hello Year of the Rat - here is today's proverb read out loud:
721. Nihil annis velocius.
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 very remiss about blogging here (although I have been blogging away at various Latin things, as you can see at Bestiaria Latina). February 7 is the Chinese New Year, though, so I thought I would post a proverb here in honor of that change of year. Happy Year of the Rat!
Today's saying, about the swiftness of the passage of time, is derived from a passage in Ovid's Metamorphoses. It comes from Book X when the great bard Orpheus has just told the sad and terrible story of Myrrha, the unfortunate woman who was seized by sexual desire for her father and thus became pregnant with his child.
Transformed into a tree, Myrrha gave birth to that child who was none other than Adonis, who would become the lover of Venus herself. Here is what Orpheus sings:
Labitur occulte fallitque volatilis aetas,As always, Ovid is dazzling. He warns us that the years slip by quickly and that the passage of time can be deceiving. How much more so when the generations become entangled, so that someone manages to be a son to his grandfather or with his mother as his sister. The strangely crossed and tangled family lineage of Adonis seems like some kind of chronological accident with time going by so quickly that it has gotten ahead of itself somehow. But no matter: Adonis speeds through his childhood development in order to be a full-grown and beautiful young man, just in time for the next tragic love story that Ovid will tell.
et nihil est annis velocius: ille sorore
natus avoque suo, qui conditus arbore nuper,
nuper erat genitus, modo formosissimus infans,
iam iuvenis, iam vir, iam se formosior ipso est,
iam placet et Veneri matrisque ulciscitur ignes.
Fleeting time glides by furtively and slips away,
and nothing is faster than the years: that man, born of his own sister
and a son to his grandfather, only just sheltered in a tree,
only just born, so recently a most beautiful baby,
now a youth, now a man, now more beautiful than he himself had been,
now he delights even Venus, and avenges his mother's passion.
So, with a salute to the quickly passing years - goodbye Year of the Pig and hello Year of the Rat - here is today's proverb read out loud:
721. Nihil annis velocius.
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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January 20, 2008
Stercus optimum vestigium domini
In English: The master's footstep is the best fertilizer.
I decided to post this as the saying for today since it provides a good thematic follow-up to the similar saying, Dominus habet oculos centum, "The master has a hundred eyes," which I wrote about last time. I have had a great fondness for this saying ever since it caused a moment of complete hilarity in a Latin class many years ago.
As you can guess, this is a saying that, out of context, is fraught with considerable peril. The word stercus is already a problem - the word "shit" is a vital part of English vocabulary, but with all kinds of dangerous connotations, and the safer translation, "manure," is not a word much used in English anymore, since we are not busy hauling our manure to our fields to fertilize them these days.
But the real problem is the word dominus. For students who have done some reading in the Bible or who pray in Latin, the temptation to translate dominus as "Lord" (with a capital L), is often irresistible, and they often even go one step further and say "God." So, a very nice Catholic student in my class, stammering with embarrassment, provided the translation, "God's track is the best shit" (clearly hoping that the Latin "shit" might have the same weird slang meaning as English does in phrases like "this is damn good shit"). The intonational question mark at the end of his statement let everyone know that he was not very confident about this, and the whole class burst into very long laughter about the whole thing.
Yet when I asked if anybody could figure out how this proverb worked and what it meant, I got no takers out of a room of thirty people. That happened quite often, though, whenever a proverb depended on some kind of agricultural metaphor that was just not part of their everyday thinking. For myself, I had vivid memories (including vivid olfactory memories) of the days when the folks on the farm where I lived in Poland would put handkerchiefs over their noses and mouths and load up wagons full of manure to haul it to the fields for fertilizer, even emptying the outhouse for that purpose (we did not have running water, so the outhouse was a fully functioning establishment).
So, given that I could immediately associate stercus with one of its main uses (perhaps its only real "use"), the proverb was easy for me to understand. For things to go well on a farm, the most important thing is for the master to walk around and see for himself what is going on. His pacing about the farm and the footsteps he leaves as he goes about his rounds would do even more to make the farm prosper than the use of manure thickly spread on the ground for fertilizer. In other words, very much the same message as in dominus habet oculos centum.
There are a host of other Latin sayings that express this same idea: Fertilissimus in agro oculus domini, "The master's eye is most productive in the field" (i.e. not sitting at home, ignorant of what is happening), Oculi et vestigia domini, res agro saluberrimae, "The eyes and steps of the master are things most beneficial for the field," and - another one of my favorites for its weirdly graphic quality - Optimus est fimus, qui cadit de calceis domini in agrum, "The best manure is that which falls from the heels of the master in the field."
So, hoping that nothing important in your household has escaped your watchful eye, here is today's proverb read out loud:
248. Stercus optimum vestigium domini.
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 decided to post this as the saying for today since it provides a good thematic follow-up to the similar saying, Dominus habet oculos centum, "The master has a hundred eyes," which I wrote about last time. I have had a great fondness for this saying ever since it caused a moment of complete hilarity in a Latin class many years ago.
As you can guess, this is a saying that, out of context, is fraught with considerable peril. The word stercus is already a problem - the word "shit" is a vital part of English vocabulary, but with all kinds of dangerous connotations, and the safer translation, "manure," is not a word much used in English anymore, since we are not busy hauling our manure to our fields to fertilize them these days.
But the real problem is the word dominus. For students who have done some reading in the Bible or who pray in Latin, the temptation to translate dominus as "Lord" (with a capital L), is often irresistible, and they often even go one step further and say "God." So, a very nice Catholic student in my class, stammering with embarrassment, provided the translation, "God's track is the best shit" (clearly hoping that the Latin "shit" might have the same weird slang meaning as English does in phrases like "this is damn good shit"). The intonational question mark at the end of his statement let everyone know that he was not very confident about this, and the whole class burst into very long laughter about the whole thing.
Yet when I asked if anybody could figure out how this proverb worked and what it meant, I got no takers out of a room of thirty people. That happened quite often, though, whenever a proverb depended on some kind of agricultural metaphor that was just not part of their everyday thinking. For myself, I had vivid memories (including vivid olfactory memories) of the days when the folks on the farm where I lived in Poland would put handkerchiefs over their noses and mouths and load up wagons full of manure to haul it to the fields for fertilizer, even emptying the outhouse for that purpose (we did not have running water, so the outhouse was a fully functioning establishment).
So, given that I could immediately associate stercus with one of its main uses (perhaps its only real "use"), the proverb was easy for me to understand. For things to go well on a farm, the most important thing is for the master to walk around and see for himself what is going on. His pacing about the farm and the footsteps he leaves as he goes about his rounds would do even more to make the farm prosper than the use of manure thickly spread on the ground for fertilizer. In other words, very much the same message as in dominus habet oculos centum.
There are a host of other Latin sayings that express this same idea: Fertilissimus in agro oculus domini, "The master's eye is most productive in the field" (i.e. not sitting at home, ignorant of what is happening), Oculi et vestigia domini, res agro saluberrimae, "The eyes and steps of the master are things most beneficial for the field," and - another one of my favorites for its weirdly graphic quality - Optimus est fimus, qui cadit de calceis domini in agrum, "The best manure is that which falls from the heels of the master in the field."
So, hoping that nothing important in your household has escaped your watchful eye, here is today's proverb read out loud:
248. Stercus optimum vestigium domini.
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.
January 18, 2008
Dominus habet oculos centum
In English: The master has a hundred eyes.
This is a proverb that you can find in many variants: Dominus videt plurimum in rebus suis, "The master sees the most when it comes to his own business," or Dominus videt multum in rebus suis, "The master seems much when it comes to his own business," etc. I definitely prefer this hyperbolic vision of the master having one hundred eyes, however - kind of like the mythological Argos Panoptes! (You can see some wonderful depictions of Argos here at theoi.com.)
There's actually an Aesop's fable that illustrates this saying very nicely - here's the version from Barlow's Aesop:
1334. Dominus habet oculos centum.
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 proverb that you can find in many variants: Dominus videt plurimum in rebus suis, "The master sees the most when it comes to his own business," or Dominus videt multum in rebus suis, "The master seems much when it comes to his own business," etc. I definitely prefer this hyperbolic vision of the master having one hundred eyes, however - kind of like the mythological Argos Panoptes! (You can see some wonderful depictions of Argos here at theoi.com.)
There's actually an Aesop's fable that illustrates this saying very nicely - here's the version from Barlow's Aesop:
Persecutus a Canibus, Cervus ad stabulum Bovium confugiebat et ibi totum corpus, praeterquam cornua, abscondebat. Adibat stabulum Servus et ille, oscitanter et negligenter huc et illuc oculos circumferens, mox decessit. Fortunae suae nimis applausit laetabundus Cervus et sese tutissimum autumabat. Sed statim, ipso Hero ingrediente locum et rebus curiosius perlustratis, cornua Cervi detexit et fustibus cum Vicinis adoriebatur.So, hoping you are enjoying the benefits of many-eyed vigilance of your own affairs, here is today's proverb read out loud:
Chased by dogs, a stag fled into a stable of oxen, and there he his entire body, except for his horns. A servant entered the stable but he soon went out, having sleepily and carelessly cast his eyes here and there. The stag rejoiced and applauded overmuch his good luck, and declared he was completely safe. But soon the master himself entered the place, and when things have been inspected more attentively, he uncovered the horns of the stag, and then with his neighbors he attacked the stag with sticks.
1334. Dominus habet oculos centum.
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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January 13, 2008
Dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currunt.
In English: When fools try to avoid errors, they run into the opposite errors.
I'm having a difficult time finding an elegant way to express this lovely Latin sentence in English! There is wonderful sound-play in the Latin, with vitant...vitia and in contraria currunt. The idea, of course, is that a foolish person, in trying to avoid one kind of defect, goes to the opposite extreme. I chose this proverb to be something to keep in mind at the beginning of the new school semester. I am always one for continual self-improvement, fixing mistakes in my courses, trying to compensate for problems I've had with the classes in the past, etc. In my zeal to improve things, I don't want to tip the balance and end up making mistakes in the opposite direction!
The saying is one that can be found in one of Horace's Satires. After citing this maxim, Horace goes on to give some funny examples of one extreme, and the other: Maltinus tunicis demissis ambulat, est qui / inguen ad obscaenum subductis usque facetus, "Maltinus walks around in baggy clothes, while this joker wears his clothes so short you can see his ugly crotch;" pastillos Rufillus olet, Gargonius hircum, "Rufillus stinks of peppermint candies, while Gargonius smells like a goat." Two thousand years later, the baggy pants and skimpy clothes still bedevil us, along with people wearing obnoxious perfume or smelling of too much sweat.
Horace then concludes with this sad observation about how things seem to go in his day: nil medium est, "Nothing is in the middle." In other words, there is nothing in moderation, no "happy medium," as we might say in English. This is a popular theme in Roman proverbs, of course! For another saying on this theme, see my previous post about aurea mediocritas, the "golden mean."
Meanwhile, hoping you are happily standing on middle ground, here is today's proverb read out loud:
2037. Dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currunt.
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'm having a difficult time finding an elegant way to express this lovely Latin sentence in English! There is wonderful sound-play in the Latin, with vitant...vitia and in contraria currunt. The idea, of course, is that a foolish person, in trying to avoid one kind of defect, goes to the opposite extreme. I chose this proverb to be something to keep in mind at the beginning of the new school semester. I am always one for continual self-improvement, fixing mistakes in my courses, trying to compensate for problems I've had with the classes in the past, etc. In my zeal to improve things, I don't want to tip the balance and end up making mistakes in the opposite direction!
The saying is one that can be found in one of Horace's Satires. After citing this maxim, Horace goes on to give some funny examples of one extreme, and the other: Maltinus tunicis demissis ambulat, est qui / inguen ad obscaenum subductis usque facetus, "Maltinus walks around in baggy clothes, while this joker wears his clothes so short you can see his ugly crotch;" pastillos Rufillus olet, Gargonius hircum, "Rufillus stinks of peppermint candies, while Gargonius smells like a goat." Two thousand years later, the baggy pants and skimpy clothes still bedevil us, along with people wearing obnoxious perfume or smelling of too much sweat.
Horace then concludes with this sad observation about how things seem to go in his day: nil medium est, "Nothing is in the middle." In other words, there is nothing in moderation, no "happy medium," as we might say in English. This is a popular theme in Roman proverbs, of course! For another saying on this theme, see my previous post about aurea mediocritas, the "golden mean."
Meanwhile, hoping you are happily standing on middle ground, here is today's proverb read out loud:
2037. Dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currunt.
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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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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