Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Omnia Perlege, Bona Selige

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.

Omnia Perlege, Bona Selige
Omnia perlegito, sed quae sunt recta teneto,
Verborumque dolis ne capiare cave.

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

perlegō, perlegere: read, read through
sēligō, sēligere: choose, cull, select

capiō capere cēpī captum: seize
caveō cavēre cāvī cautum: be on guard, beware
dolus -ī m.: artifice, device, trick
nē: lest, that not
nōn: not
omnis -e: all, every, as a whole
que (enclitic) - and
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
rectus -a -um: straight, direct
sed: but
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
teneō -ēre -uī tentum: hold
verbum -ī n.: word