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Barlow 95. DE IUVENE ET HIRUNDINE

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Temulentus et dissolutus quidem Iuvenis, qui patrimonium integrum decoxerat, ipsa etiam vestimenta solebat pro pecuniis venum dare. Ad hoc, ex augurio circumvolantis Hirundinis coniciens iam aestatem appropinquasse, illico vestitus exuit et seminudus in popinas delituit. Sed, cum brumae reliquiae redeuntes maiori frigore saeviebant et Hirundinem enecassent, Iuvenis tandem circumvagabatur et Aviculam mortuam offendens inquit, “O infelicem augurem et tui et mei infortunii!”

Translation: A drunken and quite debauched young man, who had squandered his entire patrimony, was in the habit of selling even his own clothes for money. Apropos, he concluded from the omen of a swallow flying around that summer was already near, and straightaway he stripped off his clothes and half-naked he lurked in the taverns. But when the final days of winter returned, raging with a greater cold, and killed the swallow, the young man finally stumbled upon the dead little bird as he was wandering around, and he said, "O unhappy augur of your misfortune and mine!"

[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:

Non certam

avium aut ventorum auguriis

fidem adhibendam.

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