Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Inter Opes

This poem is from a book published in 1624 by Jean Pignewart (Iohannes Pignevvart), a Cistercian monk and scholar. He attributes his collection of distich poetry to "Cato Bernardinus," invoking both the legendary "Cato" of Latin distich fame and also Saint Bernard of Clairveax who was famously associated with the Cistercian order.

Inter Opes
Paupertatis opes inter meminisse memento;
Praemeditatus enim mollior ictus adest.

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

paupertas (paupertātis, f.): poverty, need
praemeditātus: considered in advance, anticipated

adsum adesse affuī: be present
enim: for, indeed
īctus -ūs m.: blow, stroke
inter: between, among; during (+ acc.)
meminī meminisse: remember, recollect
mollis -e: soft, yielding, gentle
ops opis f.: assistance, resources