Loci

MANTVA ME GENVIT, CLABRI RAPVERE, TNET NVNC
PARTHENOPE: CECINI PASCVA, RVRA, DVCES.
Mantua bore me, the Calabrians took me away, Naples now holds [me]
I sang pastures, the countryside, leaders.
-inscription on Virgil’s tomb at Naples

[Homerus] semper ad eventum festinat et in media res
non secus ac notas auditorem rapit, et quae
desperat tractata nitisere posse, relinquit.
Homer always hasten to the event and he snatches the
listener into the middle of things as if they are known, and
waht he despairs of being able to make shined, he leaves behind.

vatis avarus
non temere est animus; versus amat, hoc studet unum;
detrimenta, fugas servorum, incendia ridet;
non fraudem socio puerove incogitat ullam
pupillo; vivit siliquis et pane secundo.
The mind of the poet is not greedy; he loves verses, he
pursues this one thing; he laughs at losses, the flights of slaves,
fires; he does not think about fraud for friend or child ____
he lives on beans and secondary bread.

cum Georgica scriberet, traditur [Vergilius] cotidie meditatos mane plurimos versus dictare solitus ac per totum diem retractando ad paucissimus redigere, non absurde carmen se ursae more parere dicens et lambendo demum effingere.
When writing Georgics, Virgil is said to daily in the morning, dictate a great many verses having been meditated upon, and throughout the whole day, he is said to have reduced them to the fewest number by revising them, not absurdly saying that he is producing poem in the manner of a she-bear by licks.

CLXXXVI vergilius in membranis
Quam brevis immensum cepit membrana Maronem!
ipsius vultus prima tabella gerit.
Vergil in membrane
How brief a membrane has taken up Virgil.
On the first page bears the face of the man himself.

ut Romanus populus victus vei, superatus poeliis
saepe est multis, bello vero numquam, in quo sunt omnia.
As the Roman people haa been comquered by force, often
has been defeated in many battles, but never indeed has it
been overcome in war, in which all things exist.

Natura tenacissimi sumus eorum, quae rudibus annis percepimus, ut sapor, quo nova imbuas, durat.
By nature, we are very tenacious of things, which we have perceived in our uniformed years, as the taste, by which we imbue new things endures.

Qui pepones vocantur refrigerant maxime in cibo et emolliunt alvum. Caro eorum epiphoris oculorum aut doloribus imponitur.
Those which are called pumpkins are expecially refreshing and they soothe the belly. Their flesh is pet on the runnings of the eyes and pains.

cumque manus puras fontana perluit unda
vertitur et nigras accipit ante fabas
aversusque iacit; sed dum iacit, “haec ego mitto,
his” inquit “redimo meque meosque fabis.”
hoc novies dicit nec respicit: umbra putatur
colligere et nullo terga vidente sequi.
rursus aquam tangit Temesaque concrepat aera
et rogat, ut tectis exeat umbra suis.
cum dixit novies “Manes exite paterni,”
respicit et pure sacra peracta putat.”
When he had washed his hands clean in spring water,
he turns and before he receives black beans,
but while he throws them, he says, “I send these,
and with beans I redeem myself and my [people].
He says this nine times nor does he look back. The shade
is thought to gather them, and no one seeing, to follow.
He gathers water and Temesian bronze and he asks that the
shade go out of his house.
When he has said nine times, “Spirits of my father go out.”
And he thanks that the sacred rights have been done.

Scribendi recte sapere est et principium et fons.
Rem tibi Socraticae poterun ostendere chartae,
verbaque provisam rem non invita sequentur.
Both the head and spring of writing correctly is to be wise.
The Socratic pages will be able to show you the matter,
and the words not unwilling will follow the matter having been forseen.

Vita humana prope uti ferrum est. Si eserceas, conteritur; si non exerceas, tamen rubigo interficit. Itidem homines videmus conteri. Inertia atque torpedo plus detrimenti facit quam exercitio.
Human life is almost as iron. If you should exercise, it will be worn away, if you should not, however, rust kills it. Likewise, we see people are worn down. Inactivity and sluggishness makes more harm than exercise.

Vita brevis, ars longa, occasio paeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile.
Life is short, art is long, occasions fleeting, experiment dangerous, judgments difficult.

LII. Anates.
Tota quidem ponatur anas, sed pectore tantum
et cervice sapit: cetera reddo coco.
Let the whole duck be placed, but it is tasty in the breast
and neck: return the rest to the cook.

XXI. Caroetae sev pastinacae
i. caroetae fictae onogaro inferuntur.
ii. aliter coaretas: sale, oleo puro et aceto.
iii. aliter: caroetas elixatas concisas in cuminato oleo modico coques et inferes. cuminatum coli orum facies.
fried carrots are served with wine sauce
carrots with salt, vinegar, and pure oil
boil the cut up corrots, boil them in a little cumen sauce, serve them , make it as if of cabbages.

sic rerum summa novatur
semper, et inter se mortales mutua vivunt.
augescunt aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur,
inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum
et quasi cursores vitai lampda tradunt.
thus the sum of things is always being renewed
and mortals live among themselves mutually.
Some increase, others are made small,
and in a short period of time, generations of things have changed
and just as runners, they hand over the torch of life.

Ne toga cordylis et paenula desit olivis
aut inopem metuat sordida blatta famem,
perdite Niliacas, Musae, mea damna, papyros:
postulat ecce novos ebria bruma sales.
non mea magnanimo depugnat tessera talo,
senio nec nostrum cum cane quassat ebur:
haec mihi charta nuces, haec est mihi charta fritillus:
alea nec damnum nec facit ista lucrum.
So that there may not be a toga to the young tuna
or a cloak to the olives, or so that the filthy worm may not fear wanting hunger
Muses, destroy the paper, my loss, of the NIle:
look, the tipsy writer demands salty expression.
My die does not compare with great die,
nor does the number six shake our ivory with the dog:
this paper for me is the nuts, this paper for me is the dice box:
that dice produces neither loss nor gain.

XLVI. Pila trigonalis
Si me mobilibus scis expulsare sinistris
sum tua. tu nescis? rustice, redde pilam.
If you know how to drive me off with a nimble left (hand),
I am yours. You don’t know how? Hick, return the ball.

CLXIII. Tintinabulum.
Redde pilam: sonat aes thermarum. ludere pergis?
Virgine vis sola lotus abire domum.
Doorbell:
Give back the ball: something of bronze responds. You go on playing?
You wish to go home, but led only by the virgin cold.

CXX. Ligula argentea.
Quamvis me ligulam dicant equitesque patresque,
dicor ab indoctis lingula grammaticis.