Bern Riddle 13: De vite
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 13: De vite
Original text:
Uno fixa loco longinquis porrego victum.
Caput mihi ferrum secat et brachia truncat.
Lacrimis infecta plura per vincula nector,
Simili damnandos nece dum genero natos.
Sed defuncti solent ulcisci liberi matrem,
Sanguine dum fuso lapsis vestigia versant.
Translation:
Fixed in one place, I offer food to foreigners.
A sword cuts off my head and chops off my limbs.
Tear-stained, I am bound with many bindings,
whilst I give birth to children condemned to a similar death.
But the dead children usually avenge the mother,
and, when blood has been spilt, they subvert the footsteps of the fallen.
Vine
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 742.
A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 559.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles