Bern Riddle 18: De scopa
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 18: De scopa
Original text:
Florigeras gero comas, dum maneo silvis,
Et honesto vivo modo, dum habito campis.
Turpius me nulla domi vernacula servit
Et redacta vili solo depono capillos;
Cuncti per horrendam me terrae pulverem iactant,
Sed amoena domus sine me nulla videtur.
Translation:
I bear flowering foliage when I live in the woods,
And I live in a respectable way when I dwell in the fields.
At home, no servant has a filthier job than me,
and, led about the vile floor, I shed my hair.
Everyone drags me through the earth’s wretched dust,
but no home looks nice without me.
Broom
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 564.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles