Bern Riddle 40: De muscipula
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Tue 01 Dec 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 40: De muscipula
Original text:
Vinculis extensa multos conprendo vagantes
Et soluta nullum queo conprendere pastum.
Venter mihi nullus, quo possint capta reponi,
Sed multa pro membris formantur ora tenendi.
Opes mihi non sunt, sursum si pendor ad auras,
Nam fortuna mihi manet, si tensa dimittor.
Translation:
When stretched out with bonds, I capture many wanderers,
and when unfastened, I can trap no food.
I have no belly in which prey might be stored,
but many mouths are made to catch limbs.
I have no wealth if I am hung up in the air,
but if I will possess much if am left stretched out.
Mousetrap
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 751.
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 586.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles