Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Spiritus Duo

This rhyming distich comes from the Florilegium Gottingense edited by Voigt.

Spiritus Duo
Est homo spiritibus commissus quisque duobus:
Unus custodit; alter subducere quaerit.

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

custōdiō, custōdīre: keep watch, guard
subdūcō, subdūcere: carry off, steal

alter altera alterum: other of two
committō -mittere -mīsī -missum: join, entrust to (+ dat.); perform, do
duo: two
homo hominis m.: human being
quaerō -rere -sīvī-situm: seek, inquire
quis- quae- quidque: each one, everyone
spīritus -ūs m.: breath, life, spirit
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
ūnus -a -um: one