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DE TURDO AMICITIAM CUM HIRUNDINE INEUNTE

 

Source: Abstemius 27 (You can see a 1499 edition of Abstemius online, but I am doing my transcription from the 1568 edition of Aesopi fabulae in the EEBO catalog.)

 

Latin Text:

 

Gloriabatur turdus se amicitiam contraxisse cum hirundine. Cui mater, "Stultus es, fili, (inquit), si credis cum ea posse convenire, cum uterque vestrum diversa soleat appetere loca. Tu enim frigidis, illa tepidis delectatur locis." Hac monemur fabula ne eos nobis faciamus amicos, quorum vita a nostra dissentit.

 

Here is a segmented version to help you see the grammatical patterns:

 

Gloriabatur turdus

se

amicitiam contraxisse

cum hirundine.

Cui mater,

"Stultus es, fili, (inquit),

si credis

cum ea posse convenire,

cum uterque vestrum

diversa soleat appetere loca.

Tu enim frigidis,

illa tepidis delectatur locis."

Hac monemur fabula

ne eos nobis faciamus amicos,

quorum vita a nostra dissentit.

 

Translation: The thrush was bragging that he had made friends with a swallow. His mother said to him: "You are a fool, son, if you think that you can get along with her, since each of you has the desire to seek out different places. For you enjoy cold places, while she enjoys warm ones." We are warned by this fable that we should not make our friends those people whose lifestyle differs from our own.

 

[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.]

 

Sir Roger L'Estrange

 

Sir Roger L'Estrange did not include this fable in his translations of Abstemius.