When thou art sitting at table with a prince, mark well what is set before thee,

Quando sederis ut comedas cum principe, diligenter attende quæ apposita sunt ante faciem tuam.

When thou shalt sit to eat with a prince, consider diligently what is set before thy face:

and, have thou thy appetite under control, guard as with a drawn knife thy gullet.

Et statue cultrum in gutture tuo: si tamen habes in potestate animam tuam.

And put a knife to thy throat, if it be so that thou have thy soul in thy own power.

Hanker thou never after those good things of his; they are bait to lure thee.

Ne desideres de cibis ejus, in quo est panis mendacii.

Be not desirous of his meats, in which is the bread of deceit.

Do not be at pains to amass riches; let thy scheming have its bounds.

Noli laborare ut diteris, sed prudentiæ tuæ pone modum.

Labour not to be rich: but set bounds to thy prudence.

Never let thy eyes soar to the wealth that is beyond thy reach, eagle-winged against thy pursuit.

Ne erigas oculos tuos ad opes quas non potes habere, quia facient sibi pennas quasi aquilæ, et volabunt in cælum.

Lift not up thy eyes to riches which thou canst not have: because they shall make themselves wings like those of an eagle, and shall fly towards heaven.

Shun the niggard’s table; not for thee his dainties.

Ne comedas cum homine invido, et ne desideres cibos ejus:

Eat not with an envious man, and desire not his meats:

Abstracted he sits, like soothsayer brooding over false dreams; Eat and drink, he tells thee, but his mind is far away.

quoniam in similitudinem arioli et conjectoris æstimat quod ignorat. Comede et bibe, dicet tibi; et mens ejus non est tecum.

Because like a soothsayer, and diviner, he thinketh that which he knoweth not. Eat and drink, will he say to thee: and his mind is not with thee.

For that grudged food thou wilt have no stomach; all gracious speech will die away on thy tongue.

Cibos quos comederas evomes, et perdes pulchros sermones tuos.

The meats which thou hadst eaten, thou shalt vomit up: and shalt loose thy beautiful words.

Speak not with fools for thy hearers; of thy warning utterance they will reck nothing.

In auribus insipientium ne loquaris, qui despicient doctrinam eloquii tui.

Speak not in the ears of fools: because they will despise the instruction of thy speech.

Leave undisturbed the landmarks of friendless folk, nor encroach on the orphan’s patrimony;

Ne attingas parvulorum terminos, et agrum pupillorum ne introëas:

Touch not the bounds of little ones: and enter not into the field of the fatherless:

a strong Champion they have, to grant them redress.

propinquus enim illorum fortis est, et ipse judicabit contra te causam illorum.

For their near kinsman is strong: and he will judge their cause against thee.

Still let thy heart be attentive to warnings, open be thy ear to words of instruction.

Ingrediatur ad doctrinam cor tuum, et aures tuæ ad verba scientiæ.

Let thy heart apply itself to instruction: and thy ears to words of knowledge.

Nor ever from child of thine withhold chastisement; he will not die under the rod;

Noli subtrahere a puero disciplinam: si enim percusseris eum virga, non morietur.

Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die.

rather, the rod thou wieldest shall baulk the grave of its prey.

Tu virga percuties eum, et animam ejus de inferno liberabis.

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell.

Wise heart of thine, my son, is glad heart of mine;

Fili mi, si sapiens fuerit animus tuus, gaudebit tecum cor meum:

My son, if thy mind be wise, my heart shall rejoice with thee:

speak thou aright, all my being thrills.

et exsultabunt renes mei, cum locuta fuerint rectum labia tua.

And my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips shall speak what is right.

Do not envy sinners their good fortune, but abide in the fear of the Lord continually;

Non æmuletur cor tuum peccatores, sed in timore Domini esto tota die:

Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long:

the future holds blessings for thee, never shall that hope play thee false.

quia habebis spem in novissimo, et præstolatio tua non auferetur.

Because thou shalt have hope in the latter end, and thy expectation shall not be taken away.

Listen, then, my son, and shew thyself wise, keeping still an even course.

Audi, fili mi, et esto sapiens, et dirige in via animum tuum.

Hear thou, my son, and be wise: and guide thy mind in the way.

Be not of their company, that drink deep and pile the dishes high at their revels;

Noli esse in conviviis potatorum, nec in comessationibus eorum qui carnes ad vescendum conferunt:

Be not in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in their revellings, who contribute flesh to eat:

ruined they shall be, sot and trencherman, and wake from their drunken sleep to find themselves dressed in rags.

quia vacantes potibus et dantes symbola consumentur, et vestietur pannis dormitatio.

Because they that give themselves to drinking, and that club together shall be consumed; and drowsiness shall be clothed with rags.

Thine to obey the father who begot thee, nor leave thy mother without reverence in her grey hairs;

Audi patrem tuum, qui genuit te, et ne contemnas cum senuerit mater tua.

Hearken to thy father, that begot thee: and despise not thy mother when she is old.

truth to covet, hold wisdom, and self-command, and discernment for treasured heirlooms.

Veritatem eme, et noli vendere sapientiam, et doctrinam, et intelligentiam.

Buy truth, and do not sell wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

Joy there is and pride in an upright man’s begetting for the glad father of a wise son;

Exsultat gaudio pater justi; qui sapientem genuit, lætabitur in eo.

The father of the just rejoiceth greatly: he that hath begotten a wise son, shall have joy in him.

such joy let thy father have, such pride be hers, the mother who bore thee!

Gaudeat pater tuus et mater tua, et exsultet quæ genuit te.

Let thy father, and thy mother be joyful, and let her rejoice that bore thee.

My son, give me the gift of thy heart, scan closely the path I shew thee.

Præbe, fili mi, cor tuum mihi, et oculi tui vias meas custodiant.

My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep my ways.

What pit so deep as the harlot’s greed, what snare holds so close as wanton wife?

Fovea enim profunda est meretrix, et puteus angustus aliena.

For a harlot is a deep ditch: and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

Like a footpad she lurks beside the way, a deadly peril to all that forget their troth.

Insidiatur in via quasi latro, et quos incautos viderit, interficiet.

She lieth in wait in the way as a robber, and him whom she shall see unwary, she will kill.

Unhappy son of an unhappy father, who is this, ever brawling, ever falling, scarred but not from battle, blood-shot of eye?

Cui væ? cujus patri væ? cui rixæ? cui foveæ? cui sine causa vulnera? cui suffusio oculorum?

Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who falls into pits? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

Who but the tosspot that sits long over his wine?

nonne his qui commorantur in vino, et student calicibus epotandis?

Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink off their cups.

Look not at the wine’s tawny glow, sparkling there in the glass beside thee; how insinuating its address!

Ne intuearis vinum quando flavescit, cum splenduerit in vitro color ejus: ingreditur blande,

Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the colour thereof shineth in the glass: it goeth in pleasantly,

Yet at last adder bites not so fatally, poison it distils like the basilisk’s own.

sed in novissimo mordebit ut coluber, et sicut regulus venena diffundet.

But in the end, it will bite like a snake, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk.

Eyes that stray to forbidden charms, a mind uttering thoughts that are none of thine,

Oculi tui videbunt extraneas, et cor tuum loquetur perversa.

Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.

shall make thee helpless as mariner asleep in mid ocean, when the tiller drops from the helmsman’s drowsy grasp.

Et eris sicut dormiens in medio mari, et quasi sopitus gubernator, amisso clavo.

And thou shalt be as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot fast asleep, when the stern is lost.

What! thou wilt say, blows all unfelt, wounds that left no sting! Could I but come to myself, and be back, even now, at my wine!

Et dices: Verberaverunt me, sed non dolui; traxerunt me, et ego non sensi. Quando evigilabo, et rursus vina reperiam?

And thou shalt say: They have beaten me, but I was not sensible of pain: they drew me, and I felt not: when shall I awake, and find wine again?