Bern Riddle 41: De vento
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Tue 01 Dec 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 41: De vento
Original text:
Velox curro nascens grandi virtute sonorus;
Deprimo nam fortes, infirmos adlevo sursum.
Os est mihi nullum, dente nec vulnero quemquam,
Mordeo sed cunctos silvis campisque morantes.
Cernere me quisquam nequit aut nectere vinclis;
Macedo nec Liber vicit nec Hercules umquam.
Translation:
Growing up, I run swift and loud with great strength;
I push down the strong and I raise up the weak.
I have no mouth and I do not wound anyone with teeth,
but I bite everyone lingering in the fields and forests.
No one can see me nor chain me up.
The Macedonian never defeated me, nor did Liber, nor Hercules.
Wind
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 751.
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 587.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles