Saturday, July 30, 2011

Aenigma: Quid Sum?

This is one of the riddles collected by Nikolaus Reusner, which you can read online at the University of Mannheim.

Aenigma: Quid Sum?
Sum terra, ex terra genitus, mox terra futurus;
Me terra genitum terra recondet item.

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

aenigma (aenigmatis, n.): riddle, enigma
recondō, recondere: hide, conceal again

ego meī mihi mē: I, me
ex ē: out of, from (+ abl.)
homo hominis m.: human being
item: likewise
mox: soon
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
terra -ae f.: land