Monday, May 28, 2012

Difficilis facilis...

Here is another distich by Martial, 12.46:

Difficilis facilis, iucundus acerbus es idem:
Nec tecum possum vivere, nec sine te.

Thou'rt merry, sad; easy, and hard to please;
Nor with nor from thee can I live at ease. (Anon.)

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

acerbus -a -um - bitter, harsh, grievous

cum: with (prep. + abl.); when, since, although (conjunction + subj.)
difficilis -e: not easy, hard, difficult
facilis -e: easy
īdem, eadem, idem: the same
iūcundus -a -um: pleasant agreeable
neque, nec: and not, nor; neque . . . neque, neither . . . nor
possum posse potuī: be able
sine: without (+ abl.)
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
tū tuī tibi tē: you (sing.)
vīvo -ere vīxī victum: live