Saturday, January 21, 2012

Non Occides, Non Furaberis

Here is today's distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 5.11. This epigram starts with two of the ten commandments and sets up a contrast between them: the lawyer needs to pay attention to the law that says "thou shalt not steal," while the doctor needs to listen to the law that says "thou shalt not kill."

Non Occides, Non Furaberis
Furtum non facies iuristae scribitur haec lex.
Haec non occides pertinet ad medicum.


THOU SHALT NOT KILL, THOU SHALT NOT STEAL
Thou shalt not steal, this Law’s for Lawyers writ:
Thou shalt not kill, this for Physicians fit.

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

furtum, n. - theft. robbery
iūrista, iūristae m. - jurist
medicus, medicī m. - physician, doctor

ad: to, up to, towards (+acc.)
facio facere fēcī factum: do, make
hic, haec, hoc: this; hōc, on this account
lēx lēgis: f. law
nōn: not
occīdo -cīdere -cīdī -cīsum: kill, cut down
pertineo -ēre -tinuī: tend to, refer to, pertain to, be the business of
scrībo -ere scrīpsī scrīptum: write