Hi to all, I’m new on this forum. I study Latin and I’m trying to improve.
Since this is my first post and want it to be somewhat useful, I write what I think is a lesser-known lullaby (ad somnium inducendum) by Giovanni Pontano (1426-1503).
Naenia quinta, De amori coniugali, II, 12 (elegiac couplets); The macrons should help those who, like me, still have some trouble with metric “patterns”.
Scitĕ* puer, mellīte puer, nate unĭce**, dormi:
Claude, tenelle, oculos, conde, tenelle, genas.
Ipse sŏpor: <<Non condis, ait, non claudis ocellos?>>
En cŭbat ante tuos Luscŭla*** lassă pedes.
Languidulos, bene hăbet, conditque et claudit ocellos
Lucius, et roseo est fusus in ore sŏpor.
Aura, vĕni, foveasque meum placidissima natum.
An strepitant frondes? Iam lĕvis aura vĕnit;
Scite puer, mellīte puer, nate unice, dormi;
Aura fŏvet flatu, mater amata sinu.
*cfr. Andria: scitus puer natus est
** The poet had three daughters one son, who was the youngest of the four.
*** It’s the little dog the child used to play with.
Edit: typo (Landuidulos–> Languidulos)
.Ut ait Augustinus: “Metior, sed quid metiar nescio” 