SAL (Elegiac Couplet)
Lentae nonne valent gustum proferre salinae?
   Dic mihi, qui vates invenit inde sales?

WIT
Sluggish salt-pans can produce taste, can’t they?
   Tell me, what bard gets wit from them?

 

METRICAL HAIKU

BEE HERE NOW
Fenestra clausa
Bombilat intus apis
Captiva semper

A closed window
On the inside buzzes a bee
A prisoner always

 

GOLDEN LINE

Candida vivifices evitant bracchia soles
White arms avoid life-giving sunshine

 

EPIGRAM

Felix ille canis tota spectatus in urbe
   quo pueri ducunt assolet ire vigens.
O si sic validis pedibus mihi pergere detur!
   Hic namque in stabulo claudicus usque moror.

That lucky dog, respected all over the city,
   wherever the boys take him he can go full of life.
If only I had strong feet and were allowed to go on walks like that.
   I stay here in the stable all the time, the lame one.

 

COMPLETE THE COUPLET

Quid? volucer demens Romanis classibus obstat?
   (Si pulli nolunt ulla vorare, bibant!)

What? Some crazy bird stands in the way of the Roman navy?
   (If the chickens won’t eat, let them drink!)

 

VARIA

CHATTERBOX (Dactylic Hexameter)
Nunquam non loquitur si forte offendit in urbe
nescioquem loquitur: loquitur dum rure moratur
solus. Nec cessat linguam si quando lavatur;
sic agitare: immo foedum gustare saponem
cogitur. Olim acies muscarum intravit in ore
vociferantis, adhuc invisa. Apud aequora tendens
garrulus undarum tantum persorbuit. Exim
occubuit tandem conans memorare “vocabo…”

All the time he talks. If he happens to meet someone in the city
he talks; he talks when on his own living in the countryside.
Nor does he stop clacking his tongue when having a wash;
in fact he’s forced to taste foul soap.
Once a line of flies marched into his mouth
while he was speaking and we’ve not seen it since.
When he was walking by the sea while chatting
he swallowed vast amounts of water.
Then he died at length, trying to say, “I’ll call…”