Bern Riddle 28: De serico/bombyce
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 28: De serico/bombyce
Original text:
Arbor una, mihi vilem quae conferet escam.
Qua repleta parva, vellera magna produco.
Exiguos conlapsa foetos pro munere fundo,
Et ales effecta mortem adsumo libenter.
Nobili perfectam forma me caesares ulnis
Efferunt et reges infra supraque mirantur.
Translation:
There is one tree, which will give me wretched food.
Full up from very little, I produce great wool.
Dying, I birth small children as a gift,
and, having produced wings, I wilfully accept death.
Completed in my noble form, I am carried on the shoulders of emperors,
and kings marvel at me from above and below.
Silkworm
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 747.
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 574.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles