Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Auro Quid Melius?

This rhyming distich comes from the Florilegium Gottingense edited by Voigt.

Auro Quid Melius?
Auro quid melius? Iaspis. Quid iaspide? Virtus.
Quid virtute? Deus. Quid deitate? Nihil.

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

deitas (deitātis, f.): deity, divinity
iaspis (iaspidis, f.): jasper

aurum -ī n.: gold
deus -ī m.; dea -ae f. god; goddess
melior -ius: better
nihil, nīl: nothing; not at all
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
virtūs -ūtis f.: valor, manliness, virtue