Si Quis Loquatur
Ne cures, si quis tacito sermone loquatur:
Conscius ipse sibi de se putat omnia dici.
Reck not of what the whispering lip lets fall:
Self-conscious men think they're the talk of all.
(Duff)
`T is self-conceit the whisperer to mind,
As if what's whispered were for thee designed.
(Chase)
Self-conscious men think they're the talk of all.
(Duff)
`T is self-conceit the whisperer to mind,
As if what's whispered were for thee designed.
(Chase)
Source: The Distichs of Cato (4th century), 1.17 with English translations by Duff and Chase. Meter: Dactylic Hexameter.
Don't worry (ne cures) if someone speaks (si quis loquatur) whispered words (tacito sermone); the self-conscious person thinks (conscius ipse sibi putat) everything is said (omnia dici) about him (de se).
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:
conscius -a -um - self-knowing, conscious
aliquis -quae -quod: some, any; si quis, si quid: anyone who, anything that
cūro -āre: care for (+ acc.)
dē: down from, about, concerning (+ abl.)
dīco dīcere dīxī dictum: say; causam dicere, plead a case; diem dicere, appoint a day
ipse, ipsa, ipsum: him- her- itself
loquor loquī locūtus sum: speak, talk
nē: lest, that not
omnis -e: all, every, as a whole
puto -āre: think, suppose
sermo -ōnis m.: conversation, discourse
sī: if
sui, sibi, sē: him- her- itself
taceo -ēre -uī -itum: be silent; tacitus -a -um, silent
