A Swallow nested on the Court of Justice. A Snake came and ate her babies. She bemoaned how she got no justice where others did.
Justice is fickle.
A Swallow built herself a next in the wall of a Court of Justice and hatched seven young birds. A Serpent, gliding past the next, ate all seven nestlings. The Swallow, on returning and finding her next empty exclaimed: “Woe, that in this place where all others’ rights are protected, I should suffer wrong.”
Townsend version
A Swallow, returning from abroad and especially fond of dwelling with men, built herself a nest in the wall of a Court of Justice and there hatched seven young birds. A Serpent gliding past the nest from its hole in the wall ate up the young unfledged nestlings. The Swallow, finding her nest empty, lamented greatly and exclaimed: “Woe to me a stranger! that in this place where all others’ rights are protected, I alone should suffer wrong.”
Babrius Translation (The Swallow that Dwelt Near The Judges)
Accustom’d ever to men’s haunts to cling,
Her nest a tawny swallow built in spring
On walls, that skirted some old judges’ homes;
Where of seven nestlings mother she becomes;
Nestlings, unfringed with purplish feathers yet;
And these, each one in turn, a serpent ate,
Gliding from out his hole. The bird forlorn
Forthwith began, in words like these, to mourn
For her ill-fated babes, untimely ta’en:
“Alas, my sad fate,” thus did she complain,
“Since, where men’s laws and ordinances are,
“Thence a poor swallow, injured, flies afar.”
Hirundo et Anguis
In foro, ubi iudicia fieri solebant, affixerat nidum suum hirundo; huius pullos anguis laesit. Tum illa “O conditionem miseram,” inquit, “cum eo loco, ubi alii ius suum obtinent, mihi potissimum vis et iniuria allata fuit.”
Perry #227