Thursday, July 28, 2011

Introitus, Non Interitus

Here is another distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 3.77.

Introitus, Non Interitus
Ducet ad aeternam te mors brevis, ut via, vitam;
Ut mors interitus non sit, at introitus.

Death, like the way, leads thee to life; and is
No dying, but an Entrance into Bliss.

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

interitus (interitūs, m.): death, destruction
introitus (introitūs, m.): entrance

ad: to, up to, towards (+acc.)
aeternus -a -um: everlasting, eternal
at: but, but yet
brevis -e: short, shallow, brief; adv. breviter
dūcō dūcere dūxī ductum: lead; uxōrem dūcere, marry
mors mortis f.: death
nōn: not
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
tū tuī tibi tē: you (sing.)
ut, uti: as (+ indic.); so that, with the result that (+ subj.)
via -ae f.: way, street
vīta -ae f.: life