Whoever has no chance and wants to imitate the powerful, ends up badly.
The frog once saw the ox in the pasture and envious of its size,
swelled its wrinkled skin: then it asked its children if it was bigger than the ox. They answered no. She stretched out the skin again with greater effort and in the same way asked who was bigger. They said the ox. In the end,
exasperated, as she tried to inflate herself even more, her body burst and so she lay down.
[ Inops, potentem dum vult imitari, perit.
In prato quondam rana conspexit bovem
Et tacta invidia tantae magnitudinis
Rugosam inflavit pellem: tum natos suos
Interrogavit, an bove esset latior.
Illi negarunt. Rursus intendit cutem
Maiore nisu et simili quaesivit modo,
Quis maior esset. Illi dixerunt bovem.
Novissime indignata dum vult validius
Inflare sese, rupto iacuit corpore. ]
The frog once saw the ox in the pasture and envious of its size,
swelled its wrinkled skin: then it asked its children if it was bigger than the ox. They answered no. She stretched out the skin again with greater effort and in the same way asked who was bigger. They said the ox. In the end,
exasperated, as she tried to inflate herself even more, her body burst and so she lay down.
[ Inops, potentem dum vult imitari, perit.
In prato quondam rana conspexit bovem
Et tacta invidia tantae magnitudinis
Rugosam inflavit pellem: tum natos suos
Interrogavit, an bove esset latior.
Illi negarunt. Rursus intendit cutem
Maiore nisu et simili quaesivit modo,
Quis maior esset. Illi dixerunt bovem.
Novissime indignata dum vult validius
Inflare sese, rupto iacuit corpore. ]
