Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Omnia Nil

This is from the enormous anthology of distich poetry assembled by Barthold Nihus, Epigrammata Disticha, published in 1642; the poem is by Iohannes Secundus (1511-1536).

Omnia Nil
Omnia sunt risus, sunt pulvis, et omnia nil sunt;
Res hominum cunctae nam ratione carent.

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

pulvis (pulveris, m.): dust
rīsus (rīsūs, m.): laughter

careō -ēre -uī: lack (+ abl.)
cūnctus -a -um: entire all together
et: and
homo hominis m.: human being
nam or namque: for, indeed, really
nihil, nīl: nothing; not at all
omnis -e: all, every, as a whole
ratio -ōnis f.: method, plan, reason
rēs reī f.: thing (rēs pūblica, commonwealth; rēs familiāris, family property, estate; rēs mīlitāris, art of war; rēs novae, revolution)
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist