Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus
Book I XIX. Canis Parturiens (Perry
480)
Habent insidias hominis blanditiae mali;
quas ut vitemus, versus subiecti monent.
Canis parturiens cum rogasset alteram,
ut fetum in eius tugurio deponeret,
facile impetravit. Dein reposcenti locum
preces admovit, tempus exorans breve,
dum firmiores catulos posset ducere.
Hoc quoque consumpto flagitari validius
cubile coepit. 'Si mihi et turbae meae
par' inquit 'esse potueris, cedam loco'.
The Bitch and Her Puppies (trans. C. Smart)
Bad men have speeches smooth and fair,
Of which, that we should be aware,
And such designing villains thwart,
The underwritten lines exhort.
A Bitch besought one of her kin
For room to put her Puppies in:
She, loth to say her neighbour nay,
Directly lent both hole and hay.
But asking to be repossessed,
For longer time the former press'd,
Until her Puppies gathered strength,
Which second lease expired at length;
And when, abused at such a rate,
The lender grew importunate,
"The place," quoth she, " I will resign
When you 're a match for me and mine.'
Latin text from Phaedrus at The
Latin Library (Ad Fontes), English translations from The
Fables of Phaedrus Translated into English Verse by Christopher Smart
(London: 1913). Ben Perry, Babrius and Phaedrus (Loeb),
contains the Latin texts of Phaedrus, with a facing English translation, along
with a valuable appendix listing all the Aesop's fables attested in Greek and/or
in Latin. Invaluable.
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