Nosce Teipsum
Qualis sit talem se nemo intelligit. Atqui
Se meminit puerum vir, iuvenemque senex.
KNOW THY SELF
None knows himself aright: yet mind he can
Himself a Child, when old, a younger man.
None knows himself aright: yet mind he can
Himself a Child, when old, a younger man.
Source: John Owen (c.1564-c.1628), Epigrammata, 3.154, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey. Meter: Elegiac.
Know Yourself
No man can understand (nemo intellegit) what sort of man (se talem) he is (qualis sit). But (atqui) the man can remember (vir meminit) the boy that he was (se puerum), and the old man (-que senex) the young man that he was (iuvenem).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:
atqui: but yet, nevertheless
intellegō -legere -lēxī -lēctum: understand
ipse ipsa ipsum: him- her- itself
iuvenis -is m.: youth
meminī meminisse: remember, recollect
nēmo: no one (gen. nullius, dat. nulli, abl. nullo or nulla > nullus -a -um)
nōscō nōscere nōvī nōtum: learn, know
puer puerī m.: boy; slave
quālis -e: of what kind? what?
que (enclitic) - and
senex -is m.: old man, elder; senior, older
sui, sibi, sē: him- her- itself
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
tālis tale: such
tū tuī tibi tē: you (sing.)
vir virī m.: man
