Candidus: Poma et Sterquilinium

This is a poem intended for my anthology of Latin Aesopic poetry. I'm accumulating the materials for the anthology in a Google Docs folder, including a document for this poem where you will find vocabulary and notes. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome! You can use the "comment" feature in the Google Doc, which I will be updating with revisions. Today's poem is by Pantaleon Candidus (1540-1608).

Poma et Sterquilinium

Cum pomis sterquilinium, superantibus undis,

Dum fluitat, magnum esse putans quod in amne vehatur

Velifero juxtaque adeo viridantia poma,

Continuo "Quam scite," inquit, "nos poma natamus!"

Sed non ista diu duravit gloria, nam, mox

Stercus it, in tenues resolutum evanuit auras.

Jactabundus homo nihil est nisi stercus in undis.

This is not a classical Aesop's fable, but it appears in Renaissance and later collections, such as Camerarius. The phrase "Nos poma natamus!" circulated independently as a saying, with the explanation being provided by the fable, much as the fable of the fox is needed to understand the saying "Sour grapes!"

Here is the poem written out in English prose order to help in reading:

superantibus undis,

sterquilinium,

dum fluitat 

cum pomis,

putans (se) esse magnum 

quod 

vehatur in velifero amne,

et adeo

iuxta viridantia poma,

continuo inquit,

"Quam scite nos poma natamus!"

sed ista gloria 

duravit non diu, 

nam mox stercus it, 

resolutum,

evanuit in tenues auras.

iactabundus homo 

nihil est

nisi stercus in undis.

And here's the meter marked:

Cum po·mis ster·quilini·um, supe·rantibus · undis,

Dum flui·tat mag·n~ esse pu·tans quod in · amne ve·hatur

Velife·ro, iux·taqu~ ade·o viri·dantia · poma.

Continu·o, quam · scit~ in·quit, nos · poma na·tamus!

Sed non · ista di·u du·ravit · gloria, · nam mox

Stercus it · in tenu·es reso·lut~ e·vanuit · auras.

Iacta·bundus ho·mo nihil · est, nisi · stercus in · undis.

I even have an illustration for the fable, from a book of children's fables illustrated by William Mulready:

And here's a satirical etching from England, How We Apples Swim, circa 1800, with Bonaparte as the horse-turd! There's a great commentary at the British Museum site which includes a large image you can zoom in on, plus the names of the other floating turds. [CC BY-NC-SA 4.0]

Meanwhile, for more fables in verse, here are the other hexameter poems I've posted so far here at the blog. :-)