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Barlow 106. DE CERVO IN AQUAS INSPICIENTE

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Cervus, sedandi sitim gratia, ad fontem descendit et, ibi totum corpus despectans, cornua magnopere praestantia laudavit, sed tibialium tenuitatem maxime deprecatus est. Sed mox Canum circumlatrantium ingruebat horror et ille per tibialium velocitatem confugit ad silvas et ibi miserrime a cornibus detinebatur. Qui tum moribundulus sic ultimum efflavit halitum: “Me miserum, qui tibialium damnavi tenuitatem, quae mihi salutem, et cornuum laudavi praestantiam, quae mihi ruinam pepererunt.”  

Translation: A stag, for the sake of slaking his thirst, went down to a spring and there, looking at his whole body, he praised his horns greatly for their excellence, but he harshly criticized the slenderness of his legs. But very soon a terror at the barking of the hounds assailed the stag, and by means of the swiftness of his legs he fled into the woods, and there most wretchedly he was held back by his horns. Then as the poor dying creature exhaled his last breath, he said, "Woe is me! I condemned the slenderness of my legs which produced my safety, and I praised the excellence of my horns which produced by destruction."

[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.]

Illustration: Here is an illustration from this edition, by the renowned artist Francis Barlow; click on the image for a larger view. This pictures uses the technique of combining two scenes into one. In the foreground, you see the opening moment of the story, when the stag is admiring its beautiful horns and disparaging the thinness of its legs. Then, if you look carefully, in the background you can see the next scene of the story, where the hunter and his dogs are chasing the stag as it attempts to run away to safety.