Bern Riddle 16: De cedride
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 16: De cedride
Original text:
Me pater ut vivam spinis enutrit iniquis;
Faciat ut dulcem, inter acumina servat.
Tereti nam forma ceram confingo rubentem
Et incisa nullam dono de corpore guttam.
Mellea cum mihi sit sine sanguine caro,
Acetum eructant exta conclusa saporem.
Translation:
Father brings me up to live in painful thorns;
to make me sweet, he keeps me between needles.
I fashion together red wax into a round form,
and I give not a drop when my body is cut.
Although my flesh has no sweet blood,
my enclosed insides give a bitter taste.
Juniper/cedar berry
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 743.
Line 1 follows the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 562.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles