Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Consequitur Quodcumque Petit

Here is today's emblem and distich by Gabriel Rollenhagen, Book 1.24, with an English rendering by George Wither. Here are the opening lines of Wither's poem:

In vaine faire Cynthia never taketh paines,
Nor faints in foll'wing her desired Game;
And, when at any Marke her Bowe she straines,
The winged Arrow surely hits the same.
Her Picture, therefore, in this place doth shew
The Nature of their Mindes who Cynthia like,
With Constancie their Purposes pursue,
And faint not till they compasse what they seeke.
You can learn more about the epithet Dictynna in this Wikipedia article; Wither uses a different epithet of the goddess: Cynthia. In the Latin, note the nifty tmesis: quodcumque is cut into two pieces by pia.

Consequitur Quodcumque Petit
Consequitur quodcumque petit Dictynna sagittis,
Et mens consequitur quod pia cumque petit.


Who by good Meanes, good things would gaine,
Shall never seeke, nor aske in vaine.



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

Dictynna - Dictynna (Diana, Artemis)
sagitta, f. - arrow

cōnsequor -sequī -secūtus sum: follow up, overtake, attain
et: and
mēns mentis f.: mind
petō petere petīvī petītum: seek, aim at
pius -a -um: dutiful, devoted, just, pious
quī- quae- quodcumque: who-, whatever