Thursday, February 2, 2012

Persequar Exstinctum

Here is today's emblem and distich by Gabriel Rollenhagen, Book 1.33, with an English rendering by George Wither. Today's emblem tells the sad story of Pyramus and Thisbe; the speaker of the words of the poem is Thisbe, speaking to the poor dead Pyramus. You can read more of their story in this Wikipedia article.

Persequar Exstinctum
Persequar extinctum te, O Pyrame; qui tua laesit
Viscera mucro, iecur transeat ille meum.


True-Lovers Lives, in one Heart lye,
Both Live, or both together Dye.



Here is the vocabulary:

persequor - pursue, attack, overtake
exstinguo - put out, quench, kill
tu - you (singular)
O - o, oh (exclamation)
Pyramus - Pyramus
qui-quis - who, which, that
tuus - your, yours (singular)
laedo - strike, injure, wound
viscus - entrails, guts
mucro - sword, sword point
iecur - liver
transeo - pass by, pass, cross over
ille - that, that one
meus - my, mine