BESTIARIA LATINA BLOG - Latin Via Fables - Zoo - Legenda

Ciconia et Grues

Comments? Questions? Suggestions?

Scroll down to find: Overview, Study Guide, Verse, Audio, and Segmented Prose Text

The story of The Stork and The Cranes is a poem written by Caspar Barth. It is written in alternating iambic trimeter and dimeter. The Perry number for this fable is Perry 194. You can see a 1501 woodcut illustration for this fable at the University of Mannheim website. You can find a translation of a Greek version of this story in Aesop's Fables, by Laura Gibbs (Oxford University Press, 2003).

   Use this Study Guide to organize your learning activities.

Here is the poem (click "play" icon for brief audio sample):

Gruum cohorti homo posiverat dolos,
Iis Ciconia implicans
Rogabat, esse non eam cui putet
Avi locasse compedes.
At ille: nigra sis vel alba, cum malis
Reperta, ius idem subi.
Sodalitas cavenda nigra candido est,
Perire ni volet simul.

The following version puts the words in a more prose-like order so that it will be easier for you to read:

Homo gruum cohorti dolos posiverat,	Additional grammar commentary to be added... meanwhile, if you have questions, use the Comments? Questions? Suggestions? link at the top or bottom of this page if you have a query. You might also want to look at these Tips on Using Segmented Texts.
et Ciconia, iis implicans, rogabat non esse eam avem cui compedes locasse putet.
At ille: nigra vel alba sis, ius idem subi, cum malis reperta.
Sodalitas nigra candido cavenda est, nisi volet perire simul.