Monday, April 18, 2011

Quid Sum?

This is one of the riddles from Wilhelm Binder's Flores Aenigmatum Latinorum (1857).

Quid Sum?
Destituor pedibus; vox est mihi nulla; remotos
Ire tamen cogor, dictaque ferre locos.

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There are only two words in this poem that are not on the DCC list:

dēstituō, dēstituere: forsake, rob, defraud
remōtus, -a, -um: removed, remote, distant

cōgō cōgere coēgī coāctum: drive together; compel
dīcō dīcere dīxī dictum: say; causam dicere, plead a case; diem dicere, appoint a day
ego meī mihi mē: I, me
eo īre iī/īvī itum: go
epistula -ae f.: letter
ferō ferre tulī lātum: bear, carry
locus -ī m.: place; loca (n. pl.) region
nūllus -a -um: not any, no one
pēs pedis m.: foot
que (enclitic) - and
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
tamen: nevertheless, still
vōx vōcis f.: voice, utterance