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Barlow 17. DE MURE URBANO ET MURE RUSTICO
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Mus Rusticus, videns Urbanum Murem rus deambulantem, invitat ad cenam depromitque omne penum, ut tanti hospitis expleat lautitiam. Urbanus Mus ruris damnat inopiam urbisque copiam laudat, secumque in urbem ducit Rusticum. Qui, inter epulandum attonitus insolitis clamoribus, cum intellexerat periculum quotidianum esse, dixit Urbano Muri, “Tuae dapes plus fellis quam mellis habent. Malo securus esse cum mea inopia quam dives esse cum tua anxietate.”
Translation: The country mouse, seeing the city mouse walking around the countryside, invited him to supper, and fetched out all his provisions so that he could satisfy the sumptuous expectations of such a great guest. But the city mouse disapproved of the poverty of the countryside and praised the abundance of the city, and he brought the country mouse back with him to town. In the midst of their feasting, however, the country mouse was panicked by the unfamiliar shouts. When he realized that this was a daily danger, he told the city mouse: Your banquets have more bitterness than sweetness. I prefer to be carefree in my poverty, than to be wealthy with your worries.
[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:
Divitiae quidem
prae se ferunt voluptatem,
sed, si penitus introspicias,
habent pericula et amaritudinem.
Maiori etenim curarum mole
opprimuntur divites,
quam pauperes.
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