Fable of the Day: De auriga et rota currus stridente

[Laura Gibbs]

Title: De auriga et rota currus stridente: The driver and the cart-wheel that squeaked, by Abstemius


Latin Text:



Auriga interrogabat currum, quare rota, quae erat deterior, strideret, cum ceterae idem non facerent. Cui currus: Aegroti, inquit, semper morosi, et quaeruli esse consueverunt. Haec indicat fabula, mala solere homines ad querimoniam semper impellere.


Here is a segmented version to help you see the grammatical patterns:


Auriga interrogabat currum,

quare rota,
quae erat deterior,
strideret,
cum ceterae
idem non facerent.
Cui currus:
Aegroti, inquit, semper morosi,
et quaeruli esse consueverunt.
Haec indicat fabula,
mala solere
homines
ad querimoniam
semper impellere.


Translation:



The driver asked the cart why the wheel which was worse was squeaking, while the rest of the wheels did not do this. The cart replied: Those who are ill are always in a bad mood, and they are likely to complain. This fable shows that suffering tends to lead people to complain.



[This translation is meant as a help in understanding the story, not as a "crib" for the Latin. I have not hesitated to change the syntax to make it flow more smoothly in English, altering the verb tense consistently to narrative past tense, etc.]



Source: Abstemius 84 (You can see a 1499 edition of Abstemius online, but I am doing my transcription from the 1568 edition of Aesopi fabulae in the EEBO catalog.)



Another English translation. Sir Roger L'Estrange included the fables of Abstemius in his amazing 17th-century edition of Aesop's fables. So, here is L'Estrange's translation:



A Waggoner took notice upon the Creaking of a Wheel, that it was the worst Wheel of the Four that made most Noise, and was wondring at the Reason of it. Oh, says the Waggon, they that are Sickly are ever the most Piping and Troublesome.
'Tis with Creaking Wheels as 'tis with Courtiers, Physicians, Lawyers, (and with whom not?), They want Greazing.

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