Saturday, July 30, 2011

Bibliopola Meus

Here is a distich by Martial, 14.194:

Bibliopola Meus
Sunt quidam, qui me dicant non esse poetam,
Sed qui me vendit bibliopola putat.

People there are who say I'm not a poet,
not so the booksellers, - and they should know it.
- W.S.B.

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

bibliopōla (bibliopōlae, m.): bookseller
vendo, vendere: sell

dīcō dīcere dīxī dictum: say; causam dicere, plead a case; diem dicere, appoint a day
ego meī mihi mē: I, me
meus -a -um: my
nōn: not
poēta -ae m.: poet
putō -āre: think, suppose
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
quī- quae- quoddam: a certain one, someone
sed: but
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist