Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus
Book III - VI. Musca et Mula (Perry
498)
Musca in temone sedit et mulam increpans
"Quam tarde es" inquit "non uis citius progredi?
Vide ne dolone collum conpungam tibi."
Respondit illa: "Verbis non moueor tuis;
sed istum timeo sella qui prima sedens
cursum flagello temperat lento meum,
et ora frenis continet spumantibus.
quapropter aufer friuolam insolentiam;
nam et ubi tricandum et ubi sit currendum scio."
Hoc derideri fabula merito potest
qui sine uirtute uanas exercet minas.
The Fly and the Mule (trans. C. Smart)
A Fly that sat upon the beam
Rated the Mule: " Why, sure you dream ?
" Pray get on faster with the cart
Or I shall sting you till you smart!"
She answers: " All this talk I hear
With small attention, but must fear
Him who upon the box sustains
The pliant whip, and holds the reins.
Cease then your pertness-for I know
When to give back, and when to go."
This tale derides the talking crew,
Whose empty threats are all they do.
Latin text from Phaedrus at The
Latin Library (Ad Fontes), English translations from The
Fables of Phaedrus Translated into English Verse by Christopher Smart
(London: 1913). Ben Perry, Babrius and Phaedrus (Loeb),
contains the Latin texts of Phaedrus, with a facing English translation, along
with a valuable appendix listing all the Aesop's fables attested in Greek and/or
in Latin. Invaluable.
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