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Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus

Appendix XIV. Asinus ad lyram (Perry 542)

Quomodo ingenia saepe calamitate intercidant

Asinus iacentem uidit in prato lyram;
accessit et temptauit chordas ungula.
Sonuere tactae. "Bella res mehercules
male cessit" inquit "artis quia sum nescius.
Si reperisset aliquis hanc prudentior,
diuinis aures oblectasset cantibus."
Sic saepe ingenia calamitate intercidunt.

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.