Bern Riddle 20: De melle
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 20: De melle
Original text:
Lucida de domo lapsus diffundor ubique,
Et quali dimissus modo, non invenit ullus.
Bisque natus inde semel in utero cretus,
Qualis in conceptu, talis in partu renascor.
Milia me quaerunt, ales sed invenit una
Aureamque mihi domum depingit ab ore.
Translation:
Falling from a bright home, I am scattered everywhere
and, banished, no one finds out how.
Born twice, then grown once in the womb,
I am born again, in conception as in birth.
Thousands seek me, but only the flyer finds me
and paints a golden home for me with its mouth.
Honey
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 744.
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 566.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles