Sunday, April 22, 2012

Audaces Fortuna Iuvat

Here is today's distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 4.55.

Audaces Fortuna Iuvat
Femina fortunae similis formosa videtur,
Non amat ignavos illa, nec illa, viros.


FORTUNE ASSISTS THE BOLD
Fair women are like Fortune: Neither she,
Nor they love men that slothful-bashful be.

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:

formōsus -a -um - handsome, beautiful
ignāvus -a -um - lazy, idle, useless

amo -āre: to love
audāx audācis: bold, daring; reckless
fēmina -ae f.: woman
fortūna -ae f.: fortune
ille, illa, illud: that
iuvo -āre iūvī iūtum: help, assist; please, delight
neque, nec: and not, nor; neque . . . neque, neither . . . nor
nōn: not
similis -e: like, similar
video -ēre vīdī vīsum: see
vir virī m.: man