Bern Riddle 11: De nave

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 11: De nave
Original text:
Mortua maiorem vivens quam porto laborem.
Dum iaceo, multos servo; si stetero, paucos.
Viscera si mihi foris detracta patescant,
Vitam fero cunctis victumque confero multis.
Bestia defunctam avisque nulla me mordet,
Et onusta currens viam nec planta depingo.
Translation:
Dead, I carry a greater burden than alive.
When I lay down, I store many; if I am upright, few.
If my insides are removed and revealed,
I bring food to everyone and nourishment to many.
When dead, no beast or bird bites me,
and when laden and moving, I leave no footprint on the road.
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Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 741.

Line 5 follows the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 557.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles