Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus
Book V - VI. Duo Calui (Perry 528)
Inuenit caluus forte in triuio pectinem.
Accessit alter aeque defectus pilis.
"Heia" inquit "in commune quodcumque est lucri! "
Ostendit ille praedam et adiecit simul:
"Superum uoluntas fauit; sed fato inuido
carbonem, ut aiunt, pro thensauro inuenimus."
Quem spes delusit, huic querela conuenit.
The Two Bald Men (trans. C. Smart)
As on his way a Bald-pate went,
He found a comb by accident;
Another, with a head as bare,
Pursued, and hollow'd for a share.
The first produced the prize, and cried,
" Good Providence was on our side;
But by the strange caprice of Fate,
We 're to no purpose fortunate;
And, as the proverb says, have found
A hobnail, for a hundred pound."
They by this tale may be relieved
Whose sanguine hopes have been deceived.
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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