Homo
Plorabas cum natus eras: fuit ergo voluptas
Nulla tibi nasci; cur dolet ergo mori?
MAN
Born weeping, being born at first did cry:
Thou then not pleas’d, why now displeas’d to die?
Born weeping, being born at first did cry:
Thou then not pleas’d, why now displeas’d to die?
Source: John Owen (c.1564-c.1628), Epigrammata, 3.192, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey. Meter: Elegiac.
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:
plōro, plōrāre: lament, weep, cry aloud
cum: with (prep. + abl.); when, since, although (conjunction + subj.)
cūr: why?
doleō -ēre doluī: feel pain or grief, grieve
ergo: therefore
homo hominis m.: human being
morior morī mortuus sum: die
nāscor nāscī nātus sum: be born
nūllus -a -um: not any, no one
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
tū tuī tibi tē: you (sing.)
voluptās -ātis f.: pleasure enjoyment
