Lines 12-22

Question 1

tandem urbanus ad hunc ‘quid te iuvat’ inquit ‘amice, praerupti nemoris patientem vivere dorso?

Answer 1

At length the town mouse said to him, ‘why, my friend, do you like to live, uncomplaining, on the ridge of a steep wood?

Question 2

Vis tu homines urbemque feris praeponere silvis?

Answer 2

Wouldn’t you like to choose people and the city rather than the wild woods?

Question 3

carpe viam, mihi crede, comes; terrestria quando mortales animas vivunt sortita, neque ulla est aut magno aut parvo leti fuga: quo, bone, circa, dum licet, in rebus iucundis vive beatus; vive memor, quam sis aevi brevis.’

Answer 3

Take my advice, come along as a companion to me. Since earthly creatures live with the mortal souls allotted to them and there’s no escape from death for either great or small, for this reason, old chap, while it’s possible, live happy in pleasant surroundings; live, remembering how short-lived you are.’

Question 4

haec ubi dicta agrestem pepulere, domo levis exsilit; inde ambo propositum peragunt iter, urbis aventes moenia nocturni subrepere.

Answer 4

After these words impressed the country mouse, he jumped nimbly from his home; then they both completed the proposed journey, eager to creep under the walls of the city by night.