Saturday, July 30, 2011

Quid Sum?

This is one of the riddles collected by Nikolaus Reusner, which you can read online at the University of Mannheim.

Quid Sum?
Ex aliis nascor, nec quicquam nascitur ex me,
Dissimilis matri, dissimilisque patri.

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

dissimilis, -e (dissimilis): unlike, dissimilar
mūlus (mūlī, m.): mule

alius -a -um: other, another; alias: at another time
ego meī mihi mē: I, me
ex ē: out of, from (+ abl.)
māter mātris f.: mother
nāscor nāscī nātus sum: be born
neque nec: and not, nor; neque . . . neque, neither . . . nor
pater patris m.: father, ancestor
que (enclitic) - and
quis- quicquam/quidquam: any (single) person, anyone at all