Stag and the springs

Laudatis utiliora, quae contempseris,

Things which you have despised are often found to be more useful than those you praised,

saepe inveniri testis haec narratio est.

as this story bears witness.

Ad fontem cervus, cum bibisset, restitit,

A stag, after he had drunk at a spring, stopped,

Ibi dum ramosa mirans laudat cornua

There, while admiring his branching antlers, he praised them

crurumque nimiam tenuitatem vituperat,

and criticised the excessive thinness of his legs.

venantum subito vocibus conterritus

Suddenly terrified by the shouts of hunters,

per campum fugere coepit et cursu levi

he began to flee across the plain and, with his swift running,

canes elusit. Silva tum excepit ferum,

he escaped the dogs. Then the forest received the wild animal,

in qua retentis impeditus cornibus

where, hindered by his antlers becoming caught,

Tunc moriens vocem hanc edidisse dicitur:

Then, as he was dying, he is said to have uttered these words:

'O me infelicem! qui nunc demum intellego,

"Oh, how unfortunate I am! Only now do I finally understand

utilia mihi quam fuerint, quae despexeram.

how useful to me were the things which I had despised,

et, quae laudaram, quantum luctus habuerint.'

and how much misery the things which I had praised have brought."

lacerari coepit morsibus saevis canum.

he began to be torn apart by the savage bites of the dogs.

et in liquore vidit effigiem suam.

and saw his own reflection in the water.