Friday, May 18, 2007

Latin Via Proverbs 88

I hope these notes will help you tackle this group of proverbs in Latin Via Proverbs. This is another group of proverbs with first conjugation verbs, along with first, second, and third declension nouns.

Please note: to read the proverbs in Latin, you need to acquire a copy of the book from lulu.com! What I am providing here in the blog are notes to help people who are making their way through the book either in a Latin class or on their own.

Group 88

1144. The end crowns the work. (Compare a similar saying, Exitus acta probat, "The outcome proves the actions.")

1145. Death is approaching for everyone. (A fuller form of this grave inscription is Vivite victuri moneo mors omnibus instat, "Live, you who are going to live; I warn you: death is approaching for everyone.")

1146. Time flies, not to be called back. (You can find this saying cited in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.)

1147. Time flies about the world. (You can find this in Manlius's Astronomicon.)

1148. The mouth reveals the secrets of the heart. (You can see this illustrated in Vaenius's Amorum emblemata.)

1149. Babbling lips make a muddle of everything. (The Latin os can mean "mouth, lips," or it can also mean "face." Here is clearly must mean mouth or lips.)

1150. It gives smoke instead of light. (Literally this is about a fire, but metaphorically it can be applied to all kinds of situations where things do not turn the opposite of what is expected.)

1151. Love gives bitterness a plenty. (You can find this saying in Plautus.)

1152. The wound does not penetrate the soul. (Buton includes this saying in his Anatomy of Melancholy, in a passage devoted to great men who had physical handicaps: "Aesop was crooked, Socrates purblind, long-legged, hairy; Democritus withered, Seneca lean and harsh, ugly to behold, yet show me so many flourishing wits, such divine spirits: Horace a little blear-eyed contemptible fellow, yet who so sententious and wise? Marcilius Picinus, Faber Stapulensis, a couple of dwarfs, Melancthon a short hard-favoured man, parvus erat, sed magnus erat, &c., yet of incomparable parts all three. Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Jesuits, by reason of a hurt he received in his leg, at the siege of Pampeluna, the chief town of Navarre in Spain, unfit for wars and less serviceable at court, upon that accident betook himself to his beads, and by those means got more honour than ever he should have done with the use of his limbs, and properness of person: Vulnus non penetrat animum, a wound hurts not the soul.")

1153. No one can swim away together with his packages. (You can read an essay about this saying at AudioLatinProverbs.com.)


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