Utram bibis? Aquam an undam?
What are you drinking? The water or the wave?

Casus ubique valet; semper tibi pendeat hamus
Quo minime credas gurgite, piscis erit.

Utram bibis? Aquam an undam? Which are you drinking? The water or the wave?

Caeruleas Ticinus aquas et stagna uadoso
perspicuus seruat turbari nescia fundo
ac nitidum uiridi lente trahit amne liquorem.
uix credas labi: ripis tam mitis opacis
argutos inter uolucrum certamine cantus
somniferam ducit lucenti gurgite lympham.

What will the stream become in its lengthened course, if it be so turbid at its source?

Qual d'acqua chiara il tremolante lume,
Dal sol percossa o da' notturni rai,
Per gli ampli tetti va con lungo salto
A destra et a sinistra, e basso et alto.

Indica tigris agit rabida cum tigride pacem
perpetuam, saevis inter se convenit ursis.

...ceu tigride cerva
Hyrcana cum pressa tremit, vel territa pennas
colligit accipitrem cernens in nube columba,
aut dumis subit, albenti si sensit in aethra
librantem nisus aquilam, lepus.

Qualis ubi audito venantum murmure tigris
horruit in maculas somnosque excussit inertes,
bella cupit laxatque genas et temperat ungues,
mox ruit in turmas natisque alimenta cruentis
spirantem fert ore virum.

Bluid is thicker than water.

They muddy the water, to make it seem deep.

... Siquid tamen olim scripseris, in Maeci descendat iudicis auris et patris et nostras, nonumque prematur in annum membranis intus positis; delere licebit quod non edideris; nescit uox missa reuerti.

This is water.

To fish in troubled waters.