Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Socrates


459     -     460     -     461


Here is another distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 3.191:

Socrates
Nil scis; unum hoc scis; aliquid scis et nihil; ergo:
Hoc aliquid nihil est; hoc nihil est aliquid.

SOCRATES
Thou nothing knowst, this one thing knowst, and this
One thing is something, something nothing is.

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. All the words in this poem are on that list, plus one proper name:

Socrates: Socrates (Greek philosopher)

aliquis -quae -quod: some, any; si quis, si quid: anyone who, anything that
ergo: therefore
et: and
hic, haec, hoc: this; hōc, on this account
nihil, nīl: nothing; not at all
nihil, nīl: nothing; not at all
scio -īre -īvī/-iī -ītum: know
ūnus -a -um: one