Ok Deb and all, Here's my attempt at translation of: Et piscatorem piscis amare potest.
Litteral Translation Of fish he is able to love and fisherman. or in better English form: Of fish and fisherman he is able to love. I am no Latin scholar by any means and I would welcome discussion/correction of my attempt to translate here. Ed Engelman from: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/walton/walton1.html#comm TO THE READER OF THE "COMPLETE ANGLER." ______ FIRST mark the title well: my friend that gave it Has made it good; this book deserves to have it. For he that views it with judicious looks, Shall find it full of art, baits, lines, and hooks. (The world the river is; both you and I, And all mankind, are either fish or fry.) If we pretend to reason, first or last His baits will tempt us, and his hooks hold fast. Pleasure or profit, either prose or rhyme, If not at first, will doubtless take in time. Here sits, in secret, blest theology, Waited upon by grave philosophy Both natural and moral; history, Deck'd and adorn'd with flowers of poetry, The matter and expression striving which Shall most excell in worth, yet seem not rich. There is no danger in his baits; that hook Will prove the safest that is surest took. Nor are we caught alone,---but, which is best, We shall be wholesome, and be toothsome, drest. Drest to be fed, not to be fed upon: And danger of a surfeit here is none. The solid food of serious contemplation Is sauc'd, here, with such harmless recreation, That an ingenuous and religious mind Cannot inquire, for more than it may find Ready at once prepared, either t'excite Or satisfy a curious appetite. More praise is due: for 'tis both positive And truth---which, once, was interrogative, And utter'd by the poet, then, in jest--- Et piscatorem piscis amare potest. CH. HARVIE, M.A. ______
