HOME | Barlow's Aesop: Previous Page - Next Page

Barlow 12. DE AUCUPE ET PALUMBE

ONLINE FORUM: For additional learning materials, and information about the book.

It foras Auceps; videt nidulantem procul in altissima arbore Palumbem. Adproperat et, dum insidias molitur, premit forte calcibus Anguem, qui ex improviso mordebat. Auceps, subito exanimatus malo: “Me miserum! (inquit) Dum alteri insidior, ipse dispereo.”

It forās Auceps; videt nīdulantem procul in altissimā arbore Palumbem. Adproperat et, dum insidias mōlītur, premit forte calcibus Anguem, quī ex imprōvīsō mordēbat. Auceps, subitō exanimātus malō: “Mē miserum! (inquit) Dum alterī insidior, ipse dispereō.”

Translation: A bird-catcher went outside and saw at a distance a ring-dove nesting up in a high tree. The bird-catcher ran up and as he was laying a trap, he pressed his heel by accident upon a snake, who unexpectedly bit him. Stunned by the sudden disaster, the bird-catcher said: "Woe is me! While I was plotting against somebody else, I myself have met my doom."

[This translation is meant as a help in understanding the story, not as a "crib" for the Latin. I have not hesitated to change the syntax to make it flow more smoothly in English, altering the verb tense consistently to narrative past tense, etc.]

The Moral of the Story:

Monemur hac Fabella

cum consideratis ambulare,

saepissime etenim

videmus

eos circumveniri,

qui res novas moliuntur.

Illustration: Here is an illustration from this edition, by the renowned artist Francis Barlow; click on the image for a larger view. You can see the viper coiling around the man's foot, its teeth sunk into the man's flesh, although the man apparently does not feel a thing yet - and even the hunting dog is gazing up at the bird in the tree, oblivious to his master's peril. While the story tells us that the hunter is using a snare to trap the bird, that is not what we see in the image: this hunter is going after the bird with a gun.