Thursday, July 28, 2011

Epitaphium Mauri

Here is another distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 2.150.

Epitaphium Mauri
Corpus mente sua caret et mens corpore Mauri;
Maurus utroque caret: nil nisi nomen habet.


His Soul of ’s Corps, his Corps of ’s Soul’s bereft;
Maurus wants both: his Name is only left.

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

epitaphium (epitaphii, n.): epitaph
Maurus (Maurī, m.): Maurus

careō -ēre -uī: lack (+ abl.)
corpus corporis n.: body
et: and
habeō habēre habuī habitum: have, hold
mēns mentis f.: mind
nihil, nīl: nothing; not at all
nisi/nī: if not, unless
nōmen -inis n.: name
suus -a -um: his own, her own, its own
uter- utra- utrumque: each of two