Bern Riddle 46: De malleo
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 46: De malleo
Original text:
Una mihi toto cervix pro corpore constat,
Et duo libenter nascuntur capita collo.
Versa mihi pedum vice dum capita currunt,
Lenes reddo vias, calle quas tero frequenti.
Nullus mihi comam tondet nec pectine versat:
Vertice nitenti plures per oscula gaudent.
Translation:
My whole body is one neck,
and two heads grow happily from this neck.
When my heads are upside down and travel by foot,
I make smooth roads, which I rub into a well-used path.
No one cuts my hair, nor do they comb it:
Many are pleased by the kisses from my shining top.
Hammer
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 753.
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 592.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles