Bern Riddle 24: De membrana
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 24: De membrana
Original text:
Luctum viva manens toto nam confero mundo
Et defuncta mirum praesto de corpore quaestum.
Vestibus exuta multoque vinculo tensa,
Gladio sic mihi desecta viscera pendent.
Manibus me postquam reges et visu mirantur,
Miliaque porto nullo sub pondere multa.
Translation:
When alive, I give wealth to the whole world
and dead, I provide a wonderful profit from my body.
Stripped of clothes and stretched out by many a bond,
my insides hang out, mown by a sword.
Afterwards, kings marvel at my sight and touch,
and I carry many thousands without any burden.
Parchment
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 570.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles