Bern Riddle 61: De umbra
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Sun 06 Dec 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 61: De umbra
Original text:
Humidis delector semper consistere locis
Et sine radice inmensos porrigo ramos.
Mecum iter agens nulla sub arte tenebit,
Comitem sed viae ego conprendere possum.
Certum me videnti demonstro corpus a longe,
Positus et iuxta totam me nunquam videbit.
Translation:
I am always happy to stand in humid places
and I stretch out my huge branches without a connecting trunk.
The one travelling with me will hold [me] by no art
but I can stop a fellow traveller.
I reveal a definite body to those who see me from far off,
and, stood nearby, they will never all see of me.
A shadow; night
Notes:
This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 758.
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 608.
Tags: latin Bern Riddles