Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Obey Nature's Urgent Calls
Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum. Code of Health of the School of Salernum. Translated into English Verse, with an Introduction, Notes, and Appendix. By John Ordronaux (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1871), p. 47:
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If thou to health and vigor wouldst attain,The Latin is more explicit about Nature's urgent calls:
Shun weighty cares—all anger deem profane,
From heavy suppers and much wine abstain.
Nor trivial count it, after pompous fare,
To rise from table and to take the air.
Shun idle, noonday slumber, nor delay
The urgent calls of Nature to obey.
These rules if thou wilt follow to the end,
Thy life to greater length thou mayst extend.
Si vis incolumem, si vis te reddere sanum,
Curas tolle graves, irasci crede profanum.
Parce mero—coenato parum, non sit tibi vanum
Surgere post epulas; somne fuge meridianum;
Ne mictum retine, nec comprime fortiter anum;
Haec bene si serves, tu longo tempore vives.
