Hibernicus Exul - Epigrams

Epigrams

Hibernicus exul also wrote a couple of Latin epigrams illustrating two contrasting pedagogical methods: encouragement and threat. The first draws on proverbs in the Disticha Catonis and goes like this:

Discite nunc, pueri! Docilis cito vertitur aetas,
Tempora praetereunt axe rotante diem.
Ardenti ut sonipes carpit celer aequora cursu,
Sic volat, heu, iuvenis non remanente gradu.
Curvantur facili vi lenta cacumina virgae,
Sed rigidos ramos flectere nemo valet.
Dum faciles animi vobis sint forte, sodales,
Discere ne pigeat scita superna dei.
Ne bene concessum spatium perdatis inane,
Nam sine doctrina vita perit hominum.
Learn now, boys! The age for learning passes swiftly,
time goes by, as the heavens revolve the days fllow.
Just as the swift charger gallops eagerly over the fields,
so youth flies by without lingering as it passes.
The pliant tip of the twig curves beneath an easy pressure
but no one can bend the stiff boughs.
While your minds happen to be receptive, my friends,
waste no time and leaern the divine commands of God.
Do not squander the period generously granted to you,
for without learning the life of man perishes.

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