Bern Riddle 23: De igne
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 23: De igne
Original text:
Durus mihi pater, dura me generat mater,
Verbere nam multo huius de viscere fundor.
Modica prolatus feror a ventre figura,
Sed adulto mihi datur inmensa potestas.
Durum ego patrem duramque mollio matrem,
Et quae vitam cunctis, haec mihi funera praestat.
Translation:
My father is hard, my hard mother makes me,
for, after a great bashing, I am born from her insides.
At birth, I am taken from the womb in a tiny form
but I am given great power as an adult.
I soften my hard father and hard mother,
and that which is life to all is my funeral.
Fire
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 745.
A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 569.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles