Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus
Book III - I. Anus ad Amphoram (Perry
493)
Anus iacere uidit epotam amphoram,
adhuc Falerna faece e testa nobili
odorem quae iucundum late spargeret.
Hunc postquam totis auida traxit naribus:
"O suauis anima, quale in te dicam bonum
antehac fuisse, tales cum sint reliquiae!"
Hoc quo pertineat dicet qui me nouerit.
The Old Woman and Empty Cask (trans. C. Smart)
An ancient dame a firkin sees,
In which the rich Falernian lees
Send from the nobly tinctured shell
A rare and most delicious smell!
There when a season she had clung
With greedy nostrils to the bung,
"O spirit exquisitely sweet !"
She cried, "how perfectly complete
Were you of old, and at the best,
When ev'n your dregs have such a zest !"
They'll see the drift of this my rhyme,
Who knew the author in his prime.
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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