Friday, February 11, 2011

Fabula Facilis: Serpens et Filius Eius


Serpens filium monet,
"Mihi adsis, O fili!"
Tunc pater in alium serpentem ruit,
mordicus corripit, et glutit.
Filius patri dicit,
"Tam nefarium facinus perpetras, O pater!
Serpens ille de gente nostra est."
Pater respondet,
"Tace, fili inepte, tace.
Sic agere mihi expedit.
Serpens enim,
si serpentem non devoret,
draco non fit."
Fabula docet:
Homines potentes crescere solent
ex alienis cladibus.

This story is based on 615. Serpens et Filius Eius.


serpens - snake
et - and
filius - son
is - he/she/it
moneo - warn, remind
ego - I, me
adsum - be present, attend
O - o! oh!
tunc - then
pater - father
in - in, into
alius - other, another
ruo - rush, rush at, attack
mordicus - with the teeth, by biting
corripio - snatch, grap, seize
glutio - swallow, gulp
dico - say, speak
tam - so, such
nefarius - wicked, criminal
facinus - crime, misdeed
perpetro - accomplish, carry out
ille - that, that one
de - from, about
gens - clan, tribe, species
noster - our, ours
sum - be, exist
respondeo - answer, reply
taceo - be silent, shut up
ineptus - foolish, silly
sic - thus, in this way
ago - do, act, lead
expedio - be expedient, set free
enim - for, the fact is
si - if
non - not, no
devoro - consume, eat up
draco - dragon
fio - become
fabula - story, tale, fable
doceo - teach
homo - person, man
potens - powerful, capable
cresco - grow, increase
soleo - be accustomed, usually
ex - from, out from
alienus - belonging to another
clades - disaster, ruin, calamity
M0615 (not in Perry)

2 comments:

clark said...

How are you rendering the line Tunc pater..."Then his father ruit (overthrew, ruined etc do not fit)into another snake." Thanks.

Laura Gibbs said...

Ruo when used with in can mean to rush upon, rush into, attack. You can see that specific meaning in the compound form: irruo, which means "attack."
Pretty much any uncompounded Latin verb can have the meaning that its compounded forms have, so sometimes it is very helpful to look up the compounded forms in the dictionary, just to expand your sense of the meaning of the root verb, esp. as here when the uncompounded verb is being used with a preposition: ruit in...