In English: He is wise who thinks twice.
As those of you who are regular readers of this blog will notice, I've moved the address over to the Blogger.com hosting service at blogspot.com:
http://AudioLatinProverbs.blogspot.com
I've done this in order to take advantage of the many great new blogging features that are available only with the blogging software associated with Blogger's hosted space. I've tried to clean up any mess I left behind as a result of changing the address. My apologies for the inconvenience if you are having to change any of your bookmarks or RSS feeds.
Meanwhile, I chose today's proverb in order to bolster my decision! I was reluctant to change simply because it is a lot of trouble, and the old system was working well enough... but as today's saying advises us, it's always good to think things over, re-putare, "to think back, think again." So, that's what I did!
As I was going through the rather tedious process of moving the blog and trying to make sure I left no broken links behind me, I definitely had plenty of time to think over what I was doing. Even though I was listening to a delightful book on tape (the wonderful science fiction novel Hominids, by Robert Sawyer), the process was time-consuming and a bit anxiety-producing as well, since I definitely have a horror of link rot. Yet as I went through my old directories file by file to redirect the old addresses I discovered to my horror two directories that I had never created, filled with hundreds of files: one called XANAX and the other called CIALIS. Yes, the evil hackers had somehow managed to create a directory in my webspace without my even knowing it. It's a bit like sweeeping out the garage and picking up an old newspaper or bag in order to throw it away, only to find a swarm of cockroaches underneath. Ugh! So while for several years I liked the idea of hosting the blog on my own server, I've thought it over (reputavi!) and decided that the advantages could not outweigh such the disadvantage of having to wage war against the forces of evil, the Xanax and Cialis spammers, and their ilk! I'll let Google and Blogger.com handle that for me from now on, thank you.
Given that the Latin word reputare obviously leads to the English word "reputation," I should probably quickly say something about that etymology here as well. Latin did have a noun, reputatio, which meant "thinking over." Yet by the time "reputation" entered in the English language in the Middle Ages, it already had the sense in which we use it today of the public estimate of a person's character. Chaucer uses it already with this meaning in the late 14th century. Moreover, the form "repute" is already in use in the 16th century, as in several examples from Shakespeare, e.g., "Let them be men of good repute and carriage." This English noun, "repute," is derived from the verb "to repute." (Compare the similar use of "dispute" as both noun and verb in English.)
So, hoping your day has been one of good repute (in both the Latin and the English senses of the word!), here is today's proverb read out loud:
2014. Sapit qui reputat.
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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May 03, 2008
NEW BLOG ADDRESS
Hello, everybody! To take advantage of the new features at blogspot.com, I'm relocating this blog to a new address:
http://AudioLatinProverbs.blogspot.com/
Please visit the blog there, and update your RSS feed as necessary. Thank you!
http://AudioLatinProverbs.blogspot.com/
Please visit the blog there, and update your RSS feed as necessary. Thank you!
April 08, 2008
Ne Hercules quidem adversus duos
In English: Not even Hercules (fights) against two.
I haven't blogged here for a while because I've been working on a book manuscript - Aesop's fables in Latin, which should be out in August with Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers - and finally I've gotten the manuscript done so I can start blogging again. Yeah!
In that book manuscript I was working on some Latin grammar topics which will also be the focus of my blogging here. One of my main topics of interest is the use of postpositive particles in Latin. Yesterday, I blogged about the use of the particles quidem and vero in a Vulgate Bible verse, and I chose today's saying because of its nice demonstration of how quidem is negated with the word ne, but with quidem still coming in second position after the word that is being emphasized, just as you would expect from a positive positive particle.
So, in this saying, the words ne and quidem form an "emphatic negative sandwich" around the word that is being emphasized in order to make a negative point: Hercules. Hence the English translation "not even Hercules."
Just to make this saying even more interesting is that it has an implied verb. You can guess what the meaning of the verb must be from the prepositional phrase which is part of the predicate also: adversus duos, "against two (men)." So whatever verb you want to supply in English (and in English we really cannot leave verbs implied the same way that Latin can), the verb needs to be compatible with the idea of "against two." For example: Even Hercules does not fight against two men. Even Hercules doesn't march out against two men. Even Hercules does not stand in opposition against two men. And so on. An alternate form of the Latin phrase supplies one possibility: Hercules adversus noluit ire duos, "Hercules refused to go against two." (In an even fuller form: Natura ipsa docet cedendum pluribus esse: Hercules adversus noluit ire duos, "Nature herself teaches that one must yield to the many: Hercules refused to go against two.")
This ne...quidem construction can cause some problems for beginning Latin students, since it is possible to develop a kind of hyperawareness for the way that ne introduces a negative clause with the subjunctive. Yet ne also performs other negative functions in Latin, as for example here where it negates the particle quidem. You can also see ne used to create compound words and expressions in Latin, such as neuter (=ne+uter), nefas (=ne+fas), and so on.
As for the saying itself, Hollywood would probably prefer for Hercules to battle the lion and hydra both at the same time, but the wiser course is definitely to take on one enemy at a time. Of course, poor Hercules did have to face the many heads of the hydra at once: that surely was bad enough in itself!
So, hoping your own metaphorical hydra is not of the many-headed variety, here is today's proverb read out loud:
901. Ne Hercules quidem adversus duos.
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 haven't blogged here for a while because I've been working on a book manuscript - Aesop's fables in Latin, which should be out in August with Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers - and finally I've gotten the manuscript done so I can start blogging again. Yeah!
In that book manuscript I was working on some Latin grammar topics which will also be the focus of my blogging here. One of my main topics of interest is the use of postpositive particles in Latin. Yesterday, I blogged about the use of the particles quidem and vero in a Vulgate Bible verse, and I chose today's saying because of its nice demonstration of how quidem is negated with the word ne, but with quidem still coming in second position after the word that is being emphasized, just as you would expect from a positive positive particle.
So, in this saying, the words ne and quidem form an "emphatic negative sandwich" around the word that is being emphasized in order to make a negative point: Hercules. Hence the English translation "not even Hercules."
Just to make this saying even more interesting is that it has an implied verb. You can guess what the meaning of the verb must be from the prepositional phrase which is part of the predicate also: adversus duos, "against two (men)." So whatever verb you want to supply in English (and in English we really cannot leave verbs implied the same way that Latin can), the verb needs to be compatible with the idea of "against two." For example: Even Hercules does not fight against two men. Even Hercules doesn't march out against two men. Even Hercules does not stand in opposition against two men. And so on. An alternate form of the Latin phrase supplies one possibility: Hercules adversus noluit ire duos, "Hercules refused to go against two." (In an even fuller form: Natura ipsa docet cedendum pluribus esse: Hercules adversus noluit ire duos, "Nature herself teaches that one must yield to the many: Hercules refused to go against two.")
This ne...quidem construction can cause some problems for beginning Latin students, since it is possible to develop a kind of hyperawareness for the way that ne introduces a negative clause with the subjunctive. Yet ne also performs other negative functions in Latin, as for example here where it negates the particle quidem. You can also see ne used to create compound words and expressions in Latin, such as neuter (=ne+uter), nefas (=ne+fas), and so on.
As for the saying itself, Hollywood would probably prefer for Hercules to battle the lion and hydra both at the same time, but the wiser course is definitely to take on one enemy at a time. Of course, poor Hercules did have to face the many heads of the hydra at once: that surely was bad enough in itself!
So, hoping your own metaphorical hydra is not of the many-headed variety, here is today's proverb read out loud:
901. Ne Hercules quidem adversus duos.
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.
March 06, 2008
Te de aliis quam alios de te suavius est fieri doctos
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.
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'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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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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