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barlow087

Page history last edited by Laura Gibbs 14 years, 8 months ago

 

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Barlow 87. DE URSO ET DUOBUS VIATORIBUS

 

ONLINE FORUM: At the Aesopus Ning Forum, you can ask questions about this fable. You will also  find links there to additional learning materials to help you in reading the Latin (vocabulary, grammar commentary, simplified version, quizzes, macrons, etc.).

 

Amici duo, facto foedere, iter inceptantes, Urso obviam dabant. Alter ex Amicis trepidus arborem conscendit. Alter autem, constratus humi, se mortuum simulabat et spiritum totum compressit. Accedens Ursus, ad faciem os admovens et mortuum credens, abibat, intactum relinquens. Tandem descendebat ex arbore Amicus et, Socium accedens, percontatus est quid illi susurraverat Ursus. Cui ille respondit, “Monebat me Ursus, ut de falsis et perfidis Amicis in posterum caverem.”

 

Translation: Two friends, having made a pact, set out on a journey and ran into a bear. One of the friends was afraid and climbed a tree. The other, however, stretched out on the ground and pretended to be dead, holding his breath. The bear came up and pressed his mouth towards the man's face and, concluding he was dead, went away, leaving him unharmed. Finally the friend got down from the tree, went up to his partner and asked what the bear had whispered to him. He answered, "The bear warned me that in the future I should beware of false and treacherous friends."

 

[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.

 

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