Friday, April 20, 2012

Evertit Et Aequat

Here is today's emblem and distich by Gabriel Rollenhagen, Book 2:10, with an English rendering by George Wither. The metaphor of God "plowing" the human field is pretty powerful!

Evertit Et Aequat
Sic Deus interdum magnos evertit, ut aequet
Sorte illos miseris qui sine honore iacent.


Ere thou a fruitfull-Cropp shalt see
Thy ground must plough'd and harro'wd be.



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

aequo -āre - make equal, level, compare
ēvertō -ere, ēvertī, ēversum - turn upside down, overturn, ruin
interdum: meanwhile

deus -ī m.; dea -ae f. god; goddess
et: and
honor -ōris m.: honor, glory; office, post
iaceō iacēre iacuī: lie
ille illa illud: that
māgnus -a -um great
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
sīc: in this manner, thus; sīc . . . ut: in the same way as
sine: without (+ abl.)
sors sortis f.: lot, fate, destiny; oracle
ut, uti: as (+ indic.); so that, with the result that (+ subj.)