Bern Riddle 51: De alio
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 51: De alio
Original text:
Multiplici veste natus de matre producor
Nec habere corpus possum, si vestem amitto.
Meos, unde nascor, in venre fero parentes,
Vivo nam sepultus, vitam et inde resumo.
Superis eductus nec umquam crescere possum,
Dum natura caput facit succedere plantis.
Translation:
I am born from a mother, I am made with a complex garment,
and I cannot have a body if I lose my clothing.
I carry my parents, who created me, in my belly,
for I live buried and come back to life there.
Once born, I can can never grow high
as long as nature puts my head under my feet.
Garlic
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 755.
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 598.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles