by Caelius Firmianus Symphosius (flourished 4th - 5th century CE)
Translation © by Richard Wilbur (1921 - 2017)
Mordeo mordentes, ultro non mordeo...
Language: Latin
Mordeo mordentes, ultro non mordeo quemquam; Sed sunt mordentum multi mordere parati: Nemo timet morsum, dentes quia non habeo ullos.
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Authorship:
- by Caelius Firmianus Symphosius (flourished 4th - 5th century CE), appears in Aenigmata, no. 44 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- [ None yet in the database ]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in English, a translation by Richard Wilbur (b. 1921) , copyright © ; composed by Elizabeth Walton Vercoe.
Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2018-11-18
Line count: 3
Word count: 20
Onion
Language: English  after the Latin
I bite when bitten; but because I lack [ ... ]
This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.
Authorship:
- by Richard Wilbur (1921 - 2017), copyright © [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Latin by Caelius Firmianus Symphosius (flourished 4th - 5th century CE), appears in Aenigmata, no. 44
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Elizabeth Walton Vercoe (b. 1941), "Onion", 1964, first performed 1964 [ voice and piano ], from Eight Riddles from Symphosius, no. 3, confirmed with composer's website [sung text checked 1 time]
This text was added to the website: 2018-11-18
Line count: 3
Word count: 23