Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Pii Labor Est Oratio

This is from the enormous anthology of distich poetry assembled by Barthold Nihus, Epigrammata Disticha, published in 1642; the poem is by Ioh. Lauterbachius (1531-1598).

Pii Labor Est Oratio
Aeterno labor est oratio grata parenti;
Orat bis, constans munia quisquis agit.

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

bis: twice
munia (muniōrum, n.): duties, functions

aeternus -a -um: everlasting, eternal
agō agere ēgī āctum: drive, do, act
cōnstō -stāre -stitī: agree; constat, it is established that (+ infin.)
grātus -a -um: pleasant; grateful
labor -ōris m.: toil, exertion
ōrātio -ōnis f.: speech, address
ōrō -āre: pray
parēns -ntis m./f.: parent
pius -a -um: dutiful, devoted, just, pious
quisquis quidquid: whoever, whichever
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist