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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [D1r p49]

Semper ignavus.

Always worthless.

Ox pulling a plough. Two men with a stick and a sheaf raised to hit the ox.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Buffalus ā stimulo nequicquam motus acuto,
Lentus ad agricolae verbera pergit opus.
Indocilis semper densa cute spernit habenas,
Et praeter molem nil παχύδερμος habet.
Quem vis ingenii praestans, studiumque, laborque
Deficiunt, num quid crebra flagella iuvant?
Cochlea sit gressu malo, quām penniger ales,
Quem cogas, leporem aut fuste sequare, canis,
Mitigat haud ullum tempus quae prandia lambit
Muscam, nec minus ac semper hirundo fera est.

The worthless ox, kept moving by the sharp prod, counts out his labour to the peasant’s jabs. Unteachable, he spurns the reins with his thick skin, and has nothing for his toughness [pachudermos = thick-skinned] but weight on his back. But if high intellectual talent, application, and hard work should desert a man, what use are swift-falling blows? O snail, be tardier than the feathery bird. O dog, pursue thy hare with cudgels swift. Time will not stop the horsefly’s lunch of turd, nor swallow zoom when winter snow’s adrift.

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