| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

abstemius065

Page history last edited by Laura Gibbs 14 years, 11 months ago

 

HOME | Abstemius: Previous Page - Next Page

 

DE NUCE, ASINO ET MULIERE

 

Source: Abstemius 65 (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:

 

Mulier quaedam interrogabat nucem secus viam natam quae a praetereunte populo saxis impetebatur, quare esset ita amens ut quo pluribus maioribusque verberibus caederetur eo plures praestantioresque fructus procrearet? Cui iuglans: es ne, inquit, proverbii immemor ita dicentis? Nux, asinus, mulier, simili sunt lege ligati, Haec tria nil recte faciunt si verbera cessent. Haec fabula innuit, saepe homines propriis iaculis se solere confodere.

 

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

 

Mulier quaedam

interrogabat nucem

secus viam natam

quae a praetereunte populo

saxis impetebatur,

quare esset ita amens

ut

quo pluribus maioribusque verberibus

caederetur

eo plures praestantioresque fructus

procrearet?

Cui iuglans:

es ne, inquit,

proverbii immemor

ita dicentis?

Nux, asinus, mulier,

simili sunt lege ligati,

Haec tria nil recte faciunt

si verbera cessent.

Haec fabula innuit,

saepe homines

propriis iaculis

se solere confodere.

 

Translation: A certain woman asked a nut tree, which had grown up along the road and was struck with stones by the people passing by, why the nut tree was so foolish as to give more and better nuts when the tree was struck by more and stronger blows? The walnut tree said to her: Have you forgotten about the proverb that goes: Nut tree, donkey and woman are bound by a similar law; these three things do nothing right if you stop beating them. This fable indicates that often people are accustomed to stab themselves with their own barbs.

 

[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 included the fables of Abstemius in his amazing 17th-century edition of Aesop's fables. Here is L'Estrange's translation:

 

A Good Woman happen'd to pass by, as a Company of Young Fellows were Cudgelling a Wallnut-Tree, and ask'd them what they did that for? This is only by the Way of Discipline, says one of the Lads, for 'tis natural for Asses, Women, and Wallnut-Trees to Mend upon Beating. Spur a Jade a Question, and he'll Kick ye an Answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.