Thursday, April 5, 2012

Nil Fulgura Terrent

Here is today's emblem and distich by Joachim Camerarius, 3:25. The image shows a swan, and Camerarius reports the legend of a king named Cygnus, a renowned musician and favorite of Apollo, was transformed into a swan after death, and both the swan and the laurel under which it lives was protected from lightning.

Nil Fulgura Terrent
Fulgura non metuo; pellunt ea germina lauri:
Fortunae insultus despicit integritas.



Here is the vocabulary:

nil - nothing
fulgur - lightning
terreo - terrify, frighten
non - not, no
metuo - fear
pello - push out, drive away
is - he/she/it
germen - seed, sprout, bud
laurus - laurel
fortuna - fortune, luck
insultus - scoffing, insult
despicio - look down on, despite
integritas - soundness, integrity