Monday, June 25, 2007

Latin Via Proverbs 106

I'm finally moved into our new house in North Carolina - and back online! I hope these notes will help you tackle this group of proverbs in Latin Via Proverbs. This group includes second conjugation verbs, with 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. You can find more help at the LatinViaProverbs.com wiki website.

Group 106

1378. The scar remains. (A fuller form of the phrase is etiam cum vulnus sanatum est, cicatrix manet, "even when the wound is healed, the scar remains," which you can find in Seneca. The saying is also in Publilius Syrus.)

1379. Poverty bites! (Luckily the current English idiom, "bites," works very nicely for Latin mordet.)

1380. Necessity teaches all things. (Something like "necessity is the mother of invention." A more harsh version of the same idea is Durum flagellum est paedagogus ingenii, "A harsh whip is the teacher of invention.")

1381. Necessity knows no holidays. (You can find this saying in the Roman agricultural author, Palladius.)

1382. Need urges crimes. (Think of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables who steals that loaf of bread when his family is starving. The saying can be found in a more elaborate form in Claudianus.)

1383. Need teaches skills. (If you've got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, you just might need to learn how to change a tire. Compare this similar saying: Paupertas omnes artes perdocet, "Poverty teaches thoroughly all the arts.")

1384. Loves teaches skills. (You might even learn how to dance if that is how you can get close to the object of your desire! You can see this illustrated in an emblem from the Amorum elblemata of Otto Vaenius, 1608.)

1385. Time waits for no man. (There is a well-known English saying that is quite similar: "Time and tide wait for no man.")

1386. The righteous man envies no one. (This is found in Cicero's version of Plato's Timaeus.)

1387. Self-praise stinks. (Compare this variant form, Proprio laus sordet in ore, "Praise in one's own mouth stinks.")


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