Bern Riddle 55: De sole
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Fri 04 Dec 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 55: De sole
Original text:
Semine nec ullo patris creata renascor,
Ubera nec matris suxi, quo crescere possem,
Uberibusque meis ego saepe reficio multos.
Vestigia nulla figens perambulo terras.
Anima nec caro mihi nec cetera membra.
Aligeras tamen reddo temporibus umbras.
Translation:
I am reborn, but I was not created from a father’s seed,
nor did I suck from a mother’s teat, so that I might grow,
and I often replenish many with my ‘breasts.’
I walk about the earth leaving no footsteps.
I have no soul, nor flesh, nor limbs.
Nevertheless, at times I give shadows wings.
The Sun or a cloud.
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 756.
Line 3 follows the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 602.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles