Thursday, July 28, 2011

Multiloquium

Here is another distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 3.110.

Multiloquium
Sermones crebri morum sunt signa malorum;
Nam quid opus verbis est, ubi facta vides?


Multiloquy shews Ignorance: what needs
So many words when thou doest see the Deeds?

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

crēber, crēbra, crēbrum: thick, frequent, repeated
multiloquium (multiloquii, n.): excessive talking, loquacity

faciō facere fēcī factum: do, make
malus -a -um: bad, evil; male: (adv.) badly
mōs mōris m.: custom, habit; (pl.) character
nam or namque: for, indeed, really
opus operis n.: work
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
sermo -ōnis m.: conversation, discourse
sīgnum -ī n.: sign, standard, mark
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
ubi: where, when
verbum -ī n.: word
videō vidēre vīdī vīsum: see