Saturday, December 24, 2011

Lumen Gratiae

Here is today's distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 4.242. Owen addressed this poem to his friend John Tovey, Ad Amicum Suum, D. Ioannem Tovey. He also dedicated poem 3:168, Adverbia Christiana, to Tovey.

Lumen Gratiae
Luna suam complet solari lumine sphaeram,
Mens ut ab alieno numine lumen habet.



LIGHT OF GRACE
The Moon enlight’ned by the Sun doth shine.
So shines the Soul inspir’d with Grace divine.

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:

compleo -ēre, complēvī, complētum - fill up, make full, complete
sōlāris, -e; is - belong to the sun, sun (adj.)
sphaera f. - ball, globe, sphere

ā ab abs: from, by (+abl.)
aliēnus -a -um: foreign, strange
grātia -ae f.: favor, influence, gratitude
habeō habēre habuī habitum: have, hold
lūmen luminis n.: light
lūna -ae f.: moon
mēns mentis f.: mind
nūmen -inis n.: divine will, deity
suus -a -um: his own, her own, its own
ut, uti: as (+ indic.); so that, with the result that (+ subj.)




(image source)