Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Quid mihi reddat ager...

This is one of the riddles from Wilhelm Binder's Flores Aenigmatum Latinorum (1857).

Quis Sum?
Matre carens ego; necdum nata, parens tamen una
Sum cunctis: vitam do simul atque necem.

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There are only two words in this poem that are not on the DCC list:

necdum: not yet
nex (necis, f.): death, murder

atque, ac: and in addition, and also, and; (after comparatives) than; simul atque, as soon as
careō -ēre -uī: lack (+ abl.)
cūnctus -a -um: entire all together
dō dare dedī datum: give
ego meī mihi mē: I, me
māter mātris f.: mother
nāscor nāscī nātus sum: be born
parēns -ntis m./f.: parent
simul: at the same time
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
tamen: nevertheless, still
ūnus -a -um: one
vīta -ae f.: life