Sunday, November 13, 2011

Auditus

Here is today's distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 2:175. English "ear" and "air" do not quite capture the Latin auris and aura, but it comes close!

Auditus
Quam cito vocalis vanescit in aure voluptas!
Quae velut aura venit, quae velut aura fugit.


HEARING
How soon sounds vocal vanish from our Ear!
Like Air they come, like Air they disappear.

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There are three words which are not on the DCC list:

audītus, audītūs m. - hearing, sense of hearing
vānesco -ere - disappear, vanish
vōcālis, vōcāle; vōcālis - speaking, singing, vocal

aura -ae f.: breeze
auris -is f.: ear
cītus -a -um: swift
fugio fugere fūgī fugitum: flee, escape
in: in, on (+ abl.); into onto (+ acc)
quam: how?; (after comparative) than
qui, quae, quod: who, which, what; quis quid: who? what? which?
velut: even as, just as
venio -īre vēnī ventum: come
voluptās -ātis f.: pleasure enjoyment