Bern Riddle 12: De grano
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 12: De grano
Original text:
Mortem ego pater libens adsumo pro natis
Et tormenta simul, cara ne pignora tristent.
Mortuum me cuncti gaudent habere parentes
Et sepultum nullus parvo vel funere plangit.
Vili subterrena pusillus tumulor urna,
Sed maiori possum post mortem surgere forma.
Translation:
A father, I willingly accept death for my young,
and tortures too, lest my beloved children are grieved.
All parents are glad to have me dead
and no one mourns me as I am buried or at my humble funeral.
Miniscule, I am buried underground in a cheap urn,
but I can rise after death in a greater form.
A grain
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 741.
Line 3 follows the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 558.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles