Link to an image of this page [M5v p186]
Qui alta contemplantur cadere.
Those who contemplate the heights come to grief
LXXXIII.
Dum turdos visco, pedica dum fallit alaudas,
Et iacta altivolam figit harundo gruem,
Dipsada non prudens auceps pede perculit: ultrix
Illa mali, emissum virus ab ore iacit.
Sic obit, extento qui sydera respicit arcu,
Securus fati quod iacet ante pedes.[1]
While he tricks thrushes with bird-lime, larks with snares, while his speeding shaft pierces the high-flying crane, the careless bird-hunter steps on a snake; avenging the injury, it spits the darting venom from its jaws. So he dies, a man who gazes at the stars with bow at the ready, oblivious of the mishap lying before his feet.
Link to an image of this page [M6r p187]
Wer in die hoech siht, foelt gern.
LXXXIII.
Als ein weydman gar eben zilt
Nach einem Kranch der gflogen kam,
Trat er ein schlang vergifft und wild,
Die ym gerad das leben nam:
Soelchs lernt, das Got ist allen gram,
Die yr vernunfft strecken zu weyt
In sein macht, und goetlichen nam,
Und trachten nit was vor in leyt.
1. See Anthologia graeca 7.172 and Aesop, Fables 137.
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Link to an image of this page [Z2r f178r]
IMPOSSIBILE.
The impossible
Emblema. 59.
Abluis Aetiopem, quid frustra? ah desine, noctîs
Illustrare nigrae nemo potest tenebras.[1]
Why are you washing an Ethiopian in vain? Oh, do stop. No one can turn the shades of black night into light.
1. This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 11.428. See also Aesop, Fables 11; Erasmus, Adagia 350, Aethiopen lavas.
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