Random Latin: An Aesop's Latin Fable translation by David Deardorff

I'm not certain why I feel inclined to post a Latin translation, and perhaps it would have been more interesting if I had done this when I was translating the Aeneid last year but I'll post this anyway because it's a common moral story we are all bound to have heard in some shape or form. These fables are actually more Greek in origin, but were translated into Latin sometime during early C.E. I believe. This version is an iteration up through the times (Barlow), with modern punctuation and the like (Gibbs).

At some point I may post some original Latin Horace or Virgil poetry with personal commentary.

Note: I tried to stay close to the Latin and used Aesop's Fable commentary by Laura Gibbs and the Lewis & Short's Latin Dictionary.

"De Mure Urbano et Mure Rustico

Mus Rusticus, videns Urbanum Murem rus deambulantem, invitat ad cenam depromitque omne penum, ut tanti hospitis expleat lautitiam. Urbanus Mus ruris damnat inopiam urbisque copiam laudat, secumque in urbem ducit Rusticum. Qui, inter epulandum attonitus insolitis clamoribus, cum intellexerat periculum quotidianum esse, dixit Urbano Muri "Tuae dapes plus fellis quam mellis habent. Malo securus esse cum mea inopia quam dives esse cum tua anxietate"

About the Urban(city) Mouse and the Rustic(country) Mouse

The Country Mouse, seeing the City Mouse walking around the country, invites (him) to dinner and brings out all the provisions so that he may satisfy the elegance of such a guest. The City Mouse condemns the poverty of the country and praises the abundance of the city, and he leads the Country Mouse with him into the city. When the Country Mouse, having been dazed by the unaccustomed shouting while feasting, had realized that there is danger everyday, he said to the City Mouse "Your feasts have more bile than honey. I prefer to be untroubled with my poverty than rich with your anxiety"

Morals opined by me:

1) Mice existed in antiquity. (Most important)
2) It's not all bad to eat porridge and drink gritty wine in serenity, for what you lack in metal you may gain in personal sanctuary.



You may preview this, and other Aesop's Latin Fables at Google Book: Aesop's Fables in Latin: Ancient Wit and Wisdom from the Animal Kingdom (By Laura Gibbs)