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Barlow 50. DE RUSTICO ET COLUBRO

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Rusticus repertum in altiori nive Colubrum, frigore prope enectum, domum tulit et ad focum adiecit. Coluber ab igni vires virusque recipiens et non amplius flammam ferens, totum tugurium sibilando infecit. Accurrit Rusticus et, correpta sude, verbis verberibusque cum eo iniuriam expostulat: “Num haec est quam retulit gratia, eripiendo vitam illi cui vitam debuit?”

Rūsticus repertum in altiōrī nive Colubrum, frīgore prope ēnectum, domum tulit et ad focum adiēcit. Coluber ab ignī vīres vīrusque recipiens et nōn amplius flammam ferens, tōtum tugurium sībilando infēcit. Accurrit Rūsticus et, correptā sude, verbīs verberibusque cum eō iniūriam expostulat: “Num haec est quam retulit grātia, ēripiendō vītam illī cui vītam dēbuit?”

Translation: A farmer found a snake in the very deep snow, almost dead with cold, and brought it home, and tossed it beside the fire. The snake, recuperating his strength and poison from the fire's warmth, and no longer able to endure the flame, poisoned all the hut with his hissing. The farmer ran up and grabbed a pointed stick, with words and blows he complained to the snake about the wrong the snake had done him: "Can this really be the thanks it has paid me, snatching away the life of the one to whom it owed its life?"

[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:

Contra ingratos perfidosque

Natura declamat ipsa;

in ingrato etenim uno,

omnia numerantur crimina,

qui

ab alieno acceptum beneficium

non agnoscet,

et patriae et parentibus et Deo ipsi

infidelem se praebebit.

Illustration: Here is an illustration from this edition, by the renowned artist Francis Barlow; click on the image for a larger view.