Bern Riddle 5: De mensa

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Thu 26 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Riddle 5: De mensa
Original text:
Pulchra mater ego natos dum collego multos,
Cunctis trado libens quicquid in pectore gesto,
Oscula nam mihi prius qui cara dederunt,
Vestibus exutam turpi me modo relinquunt.
Nulli sicut mihi pro bonis mala redduntur:
Quos lactavi, nudam me pede per angula versant.
Translation:
A beautiful mother when I gather up many sons,
I happily give everyone whatever I am carrying in my breast,
for they who once gave dear kisses to me
now shamelessly abandon me, stripped of my clothes.
No one is repaid for good with bad as I am;
Those I have suckled tip me over by my foot, naked, in the corner.
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Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 739.

Line 6 follows the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 551.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles