Monday, February 20, 2012

Habet Africanus miliens...

Here is today's distich by Martial, 12.10. Here Martial is making fun of someone making money hand over fist (habet miliens, he's got and got a thousand-fold), but still he grasps for more!

Habet Africanus miliens, tamen captat;
Fortuna multis dat nimis, satis nulli.


He fawns for more, though he his thousands touch:
Fortunes gives non enough, but some too much.
- Crowley

Here is the vocabulary:

habeo - have
Africanus - Africanus
miliens - thousand times, thousand-fold
tamen - but, however
capto - grasp, grab
Fortuna - fortune, Lady Luck
multus - much, many
do - give
nimis - too much, excessively
satis - enough
nullus - not any, none, no one