Bern Riddle 17: De cribro
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 17: De cribro
Original text:
Patulo sum semper ore nec labia iungo.
Incitor ad cursum frequenti verbere tactus.
Exta mihi nulla; manu si forte ponantur,
Quassa mitto currens, minuto vulnere ruptus,
Meliora cunctis, mihi nam vilia servans;
Vacuumque bonis inanem cuncti relinquunt.
Translation:
My mouth is always open and my lips are never sealed.
I am urged on my course by a well-used whip.
I have no insides. If they are placed by hand,
I, moving and broken by tiny wounds, will send them out, shaken,
keeping the worst for me and the best for all;
everyone abandons the hollow and empty one for the good things.
Sieve
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 743.
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 563.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles