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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Noli laborare ut diteris, sed prudentiæ tuæ pone modum.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Cibos quos comederas evomes, et perdes pulchros sermones tuos.

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

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

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

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

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

Ne attingas parvulorum terminos, et agrum pupillorum ne introëas:

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

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

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

a strong Champion they have, to grant them redress.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

speak thou aright, all my being thrills.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fovea enim profunda est meretrix, et puteus angustus aliena.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who but the tosspot that sits long over his wine?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oculi tui videbunt extraneas, et cor tuum loquetur perversa.

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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!