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Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus

Book V - X. Canis Vetulus et Venator (Perry 532)

Aduersu omnes fortis et uelox feras
canis cum domino semper fecisset satis,
languere coepit annis ingrauantibus.
Aliquando obiectus hispidi pugnae suis,
arripuit aurem; sed cariosis dentibus
praedam dimisit rictus. Venator dolens
canem obiurgabat. Cui senex contra Lacon:
"Non te destituit animus, sed uires meae.
Quod fuimus lauda, si iam damnas quod sumus."
Hoc cur, Philete, scripserim pulchre uides.

The Old Dog and the Huntsman (trans. C. Smart)

A Dog, that time and often tried,
His master always satisfied;
And whensoever he assail'd,
Against the forest-beasts prevail'd
Both by activity and strength,,
Through years began to flag at length
One day, when hounded at a boar,
His ear he seized, as heretofore;
But with his teeth, decay'd and old,
Could not succeed to keep his hold.
A t which the huntsman, much concern'd,
The vet'ran huff'd, who thus return'd:
" My resolution and my aim,
Though not my strength, are still the same;
For what I am if I am chid,
Praise what I was, and what I did."
Philetus, you the drift perceive
Of this, with which I take my leave.


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.