Monday, April 12, 2010

Traha et Bufo (Odo)

SOURCE: Odo of Cheriton's' Latin fables are available in Hervieux's edition at GoogleBooks, and there is a delightful English translation by John Jacobs: The Fables of Odo of Cheriton.

This is fable 53 in Hervieux's edition. Although this is not in the Aesopic corpus, it definitely fits with the spirit of fables about the suffering of the lesser creatures. The tiny story is itself an expansion of this Leonine verse, which Odo himself supplies in his commentary on the fable: Bufo trahae dixit: Maledictio tot dominis sit!

READ OUT LOUD. Choose which marked text you prefer to practice with - macrons or accent marks - and read the text out loud until you feel comfortable and confident. Then, try reading the unmarked text at the bottom. It should be easy for you after practicing with the marked texts. :-)


MACRONS. Here is the text with macrons:

Traha semel trānsīvit super Būfōnem, et ūnus dēns percussit eam in capite, alius in corde, alius in rēnibus. Et ait Būfo: Deus confundat tot dominōs!


ACCENT MARKS. Here is the text with ecclesiastical accents, plus some color-coding for the words of three or more syllables (blue: penultimate stress; red: antepenultimate stress):

Traha semel transívit super Bufónem, et unus dens percússit eam in cápite, álius in corde, álius in rénibus. Et ait Bufo: Deus confúndat tot dóminos!


UNMARKED TEXT. Here is the unmarked text - after practicing with the marked text that you prefer, you should not have any trouble with the unmarked text:

Traha
semel transivit
super Bufonem,
et unus dens
percussit eam in capite,
alius in corde,
alius in renibus.
Et ait Bufo:
Deus confundat tot dominos!



IMAGE. Here is an illustration for the story (image source), showing a frog in the grass: