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Barlow 26. DE RANA ET BOVE

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Rana, cupida aequandi Bovem, se distendebat. Filius hortabatur Matrem coepto desistere; nihil enim esse Ranam ad Bovem. Illa autem, posthabito consilio, secundum intumuit. Clamitat Natus: “Crepes licet, Mater, Bovem nunquam vinces.” Tertium autem cum intumuisset, crepuit.

Rāna, cupida aequandī Bovem, sē distendēbat. Fīlius hortābātur Mātrem coeptō dēsistere; nihil enim esse Rānam ad Bovem. Illa autem, posthabito consiliō, secundum intumuit. Clāmitat Nātus: “Crepēs licet, Māter, Bovem nunquam vincēs.” Tertium autem cum intumuisset, crepuit.

Translation: A frog, eager to equal the ox, puffed herself up. The son urged his mother to put aside the task she began, saying that a frog was nothing compared to an ox. The frog, however, having set her son's advice aside, swelled herself a second time. The son shouted: "Even if you were to fill yourself to bursting, Mother, you will never beat the ox." The third time when she puffed up, she burst.

[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:

Cuique sua Dos est,

quocirca quisque sibi consulat;

nec invideat superiori,

quod miserum est,

nec,

quod Stultitia est,

aequare optet.

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