Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Si Deus Voluerit

Here is today's emblem and distich by Gabriel Rollenhagen, Book 2:97, with an English rendering by George Wither. In Wither's poem to accompany the emblem, he makes this mention of the dog:

Moreover, wee, some notice hence may take,
That, if provision, God, vouchsafes to make,
For Lyons, Dogs, and Ravens, in their need,
Hee will his Lambes, and harmlesse Turtles feed:
And, so provide, that they shall alwayes have
Sufficient, to maintaine the Life hee gave.
Even if the Latin distich does not mention the dog, the logic is clear: if God gives life to his creatures, then of course he would give the bread needed to sustain that life... even if you don't see the big hand reaching down from the sky to offer the bread directly.

Si Deus Voluerit

Si Deus ille volet, qui vitam dat mihi, vita
Quo se sustentet, sat mihi panis erit.


Why should I feare the want of Bread?
If God so please, I shall bee fed.



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:

pānis -is m. bread; food
sustentō -āre - hold upright, support, sustain

deus -ī m.; dea -ae f. god; goddess
dō dare dedī datum: give
ego meī mihi mē: I, me
ille illa illud: that
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
satis/sat: enough, sufficient
sī: if
sui, sibi, sē: him- her- itself
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
vīta -ae f.: life
volō velle voluī: wish, be willing