Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Ratio

Here is another distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 3.72:

Ratio
Rerum regina est ratio, naturaque mater;
Naturam ratio nos iubet ergo sequi.

REASON
Reason’s the Queen of things; their Mother’s Nature:
This brings them forth; that is their Regulater.

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:

rēgina -ae f.: queen

ergo: therefore
iubeō iubēre iūssī iūssum: bid, order
māter mātris f.: mother
nātūra -ae f.: nature
nōs nostrum/nostrī nobis nōs: we
que (enclitic) - and
ratio -ōnis f.: method, plan, reason
rēs reī f.: thing (rēs pūblica, commonwealth; rēs familiāris, family property, estate; rēs mīlitāris, art of war; rēs novae, revolution)
sequor sequī secūtus sum: follow
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist