Lorsch Riddle 4
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Thu 22 Apr 2021Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Lorsch Riddle 4
Original text:
Me pater ex gelido generat dum tergore matris
Quamdiu horriferis ipsam complectitur halitis
Magna sub ingenti mihimet patre corpora surgunt,
Donec ipse prius fato terrente recedat
Aestibus aetheris sole vaporante fugatus.
Tunc ego morte cadens propriam progigno parentem,
Tempore post iterum haut multo gignenda per ipsam.
Translation:
While my father sires me from the icy skin of my mother,
as he surrounds her with terrible vapours,
huge bodies rise beneath my mighty father,
until he himself must soon retreat from a terrifying fate,
chased away by the sky’s heat as the sun burns.
Then, dying, I beget my own mother,
and I will soon be born to her again.
Snow, ice
Notes:
This edition is based on Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Palatinus latinus 1753, folio 115v. You can find images of this manuscript here.
“Hali[ti]s” (line 2) follows Dümmler, Ernst. Poetae Latini aevi Carolini. Volume 1, MGH. Berlin: Weidmann, 1881. Page 21.
Tags: latin