Thursday, July 28, 2011

Philautia

Here is another distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 2.93.

Philautia
Tu persona secunda, ille ultima, prima ego; nostrum
Nemo tamen sibi non esse videtur ego.

I the First Person, Second Thou, Third He;
Yet Each t’himself seems First of all the Three.

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

persōna (persōnae, f.): mask, character, person
philautia (Greek noun - f.): self-love

ego meī mihi mē: I, me
ille illa illud: that
nēmo: no one (gen. nullius, dat. nulli, abl. nullo or nulla > nullus -a -um)
nōn: not
nōs nostrum/nostrī nobis nōs: we
prīmus -a -um: first; adv. prīmum: at first, firstly
secundus -a -um: following; favorable
sui, sibi, sē: him- her- itself
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
tamen: nevertheless, still
tū tuī tibi tē: you (sing.)
ūltimus -a -um: farthest, final, last, ultimate
videō vidēre vīdī vīsum: see