I've been taking a look at some of the Carmina Burana. I'm a bit puzzled by the last stanza of the poem beginning "Manus ferens munera" -- most of the poem is quite straightforward, about how money corrupts judges and perverts justice, beggars get ignored while rich people get the judgments they want, etc. Then we have this rather curious stanza:
Hec est causa curie,
quam daturus perficit;
"This is the cause/condition of the court, which the one who will give carries out/sees through."
defectu pecunie
causa Codri deficit.
"By a lack of money/wealth the cause of Codrus [the legendary last king of Athens, who sacrificed himself so the enemy would withdraw] fails." (Confusing, since the cause of Codrus did not fail -- or perhaps the poet simply means "even an exemplary and supremely righteous cause will fail"?)
tale fedus hodie
defedat et inficit
"This compact/agreement today defiles and infects..."
nostros ablativos,
qui absorbent vivos,
moti per dativos
movent genitivos.
...And I'm not at all sure what's going on here: obviously a series of grammatical puns of some sort (probably centered around "dativos" = "given" and "ablativos" = "taken away").
Any insights?
Hec est causa curie,
quam daturus perficit;
"This is the cause/condition of the court, which the one who will give carries out/sees through."
defectu pecunie
causa Codri deficit.
"By a lack of money/wealth the cause of Codrus [the legendary last king of Athens, who sacrificed himself so the enemy would withdraw] fails." (Confusing, since the cause of Codrus did not fail -- or perhaps the poet simply means "even an exemplary and supremely righteous cause will fail"?)
tale fedus hodie
defedat et inficit
"This compact/agreement today defiles and infects..."
nostros ablativos,
qui absorbent vivos,
moti per dativos
movent genitivos.
...And I'm not at all sure what's going on here: obviously a series of grammatical puns of some sort (probably centered around "dativos" = "given" and "ablativos" = "taken away").
Any insights?