Bern Riddle 35: De liliis
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 35: De liliis
Original text:
Nos pater occultus commendat patulae matri,
Et mater honesta confixos porregit hasta.
Vivere nec umquam valemus tempore longo,
Et leviter tactos incurvat aegra senectus.
Oscula si nobis causa figantur amoris,
Reddimus candentes signa flaventia labris.
Translation:
A secret father entrusts us to an open mother,
and our honorable mother offers us up, fastened to a spear.
We can never live for a long time,
and sickly old age easily bends us at a touch.
If kisses are planted upon us for the sake of love,
gleaming white, we give yellow marks to the lips in return.
Lilies
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 749.
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 581.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles