Aesopi Carmina: Desbillons Book 13

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This project has moved to a blog of its own: Fabulae Aesopi.

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I'm excited about today's post for Book 13 (we're almost through the series of posts about the Latin verse fables of Desbillons; for more about Desbillons, see the starting post) because it's one of my favorite Desbillons poems! For links to the rest of the poems in Book 13, see the bottom of the post.

XIII.32 Latrunculorum Ludus

Latrunculorum praeliis cum luditur,

Rex et regina, pedites et equites, loco

Quisque suo et ordine varia obeunt munia,

at bello ubi finis impositus est ludicro,

capsa conduntur una omnes promiscue.

Humanas variat vita, mors aequat vices

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

Cum luditur

latrunculorum praeliis,

rex et regina, 

pedites et equites, 

quisque obeunt varia munia

suo loco et ordine,

at ubi finis impositus est

ludicro bello,

omnes promiscue conduntur

una capsa.

Vita variat [humanas vices],

mors aequat humanas vices.

Now I think about this little poem whenever I see a set of chess pieces! Desbillons' inspiration for this poem was the fable in French verse by Aubert: Le Jeu des échecs.

The meter is iambic, and here is some help with the meter (for more about iambic meter, see the post about Desbillons 1.1).

Latrun · culo · rum prae · liis · cum lu · ditur,

Rex et · regi · na pedi · tes et e · quites · loco

Quisque su~ · et or · dine va · ri~ obe · unt mu · nia,

at bell~ · ubi fi · nis im · positus · est lu · dicro,

capsa · condun · tur u · n~ omnes · promis · cue.

Huma · nas vari · at vi · ta, mors · aequat · vices.

I found this lovely image at Wikimedia, and I used imgflip to make it a graphic:

More poems in Desbillons, Book 13:

1. gibberorum civitas (lines: 20+)
2. bufo et mustela silvestris (lines: 20+)
3. cerva et bos (lines: 20+)
4. bos et asinus (lines: 11)
5. hostis beneficus (lines: 7)
6. Apelles et sutor (lines: 20+)
7. hirundo et ardea (lines: 11)
8. Jupiter, Phoebus, et paludes (lines: 20+)
9. mors et eius ministrae (lines: 13)
10. passer et accipiter (lines: 20+)
11. myrtus et quercus (lines: 6)
12. puer et felis (lines: 11)
13. cicada et hirundo (lines: 11)
14. ovis tonsa (lines: 12)
15. catellus et molossus (lines: 17)
16. musca et caccabus (lines: 20+)
17. agricola et apes duae (lines: 13)
18. agricola et perticales arbusculae (lines: 20+)
19. cicindela et luscinia (lines: 10)
20. sol et luna (lines: 18)
21. libri duo (lines: 19)
22. buccina et echo (lines: 5)
23. vultur et columbae (lines: 20+)
24. turdus et hirundo (lines: 20+)
25. asini vota (lines: 20+)
26. graculus, cornix, et aquila (lines: 19)
27. combibones duo (lines: 12)
28. canis et herus (lines: 16)
29. sciurus et canis (lines: 20+)
30. ostreae (lines: 20+)
31. libellus flagitiosus et iudex (lines: 13)
32. latrunculorum ludus (lines: 6)