Thursday, April 5, 2012

Tentator

Here is today's distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 3.47.

Tentator
Sic, velut in muros mures, in pectora Demon
Invenit occultas, aut facit ipse, vias.


THE TEMPTER
As Mice in Walls, so Satan in man’s heart
Or finds, or makes a way with his black Art.

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:

daemon, daemonis m. - demon, devil
mūs, mūris - mouse
occultus -a -um - hidden, secret

aut: or
faciō facere fēcī factum: do, make
in: in, on (+ abl.); into, onto (+ acc)
inveniō -venīre -vēnī -ventum: find; discover
ipse ipsa ipsum: him- her- itself
mūrus -ī m.: wall
pectus -oris n.: chest, breast
sīc: in this manner, thus; sīc . . . ut: in the same way as
velut: even as, just as
via -ae f.: way, street