Bern Riddle 9: De mola
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 9: De mola
Original text:
Senior ab aevo, Eva sum senior ego,
Et senectam gravem nemo currendo revincit.
Vitam dabo cunctis, vitam si tulero multis.
Milia prosterno, manu dum verbero nullum.
Saturamen victu, ignem ieiuna produco,
Et uno vagantes possum conprehendere loco.
Translation:
I am older that this age, I am older than Eve,
and no one stops the running of my heavy old age.
I will bring life to everyone if I extract life from many.
I destroy thousands but I punch no one.
Sated, I bring food; hungry, I bring fire,
and I can keep the wanderers in one place.
Millstone
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 740.
Lines 2 and 5 follow the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 555.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles