Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Aulicorum Par Impar

Here is today's distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 4.262. Here Owen puts together a paradoxical "unequal pair" of courtiers - there is the mythological Momus, who was famous for criticizing everyone, including the gods (Wikipedia), along with Gnatho, the archetypal flatterer. For more about Gnatho, see Owen's poem Adulator et Invidus,

Aulicorum Par Impar
Non bene conveniunt, at in una sede morantur
Momus vituperans omnia, Gnatho nihil.



A PAIR OF IMPAIR COURTIERS
They well agree not, nor keep equal ways,
This all things praiseth, that doth nothing praise.

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

aulicus -a -um - courtly; courtier
Gnatho - Gnatho, proverbial for adultation and flattery
impar, imparis - unequal, uneven
Momus - Momus
vitupero, -āre - blame, disparage, find fault

at: but, but yet
bene: well
conveniō -venīre -vēnī -ventum: assemble, meet; agree
in: in, on (+ abl.); into, onto (+ acc)
moror morārī morātus sum: delay
nihil, nīl: nothing; not at all
nōn: not
omnis -e: all, every, as a whole
pār paris: equal
sēdēs -is m.: seat, abode, habitation
ūnus -a -um: one