Friday, February 3, 2012

Exemplar

Here is today's distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 7.19. I love the word play here with suadet and sua det. There's really nothing Harvey can do in the English to match that! For the image, I chose Saint Martin of Tours, who famously cut his cloak in half to share it with a man who had no clothes.

Exemplar
Exemplo virtus bene discitur atque docetur:
Qui dare mi suadet pauperibus, sua det.

EXAMPLE
Vertue by good Example’s taught and learn’d:
In teaching me, my Teacher is concern’d.

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:

exemplar, exemplāris n. - copy, model, example
suādeo -ēre, suāsī, suāsum - urge, recommend, suggest

atque, ac: and in addition, and also, and; (after comparatives) than; simul atque, as soon as
bene: well
disco -ere didicī: learn
do dare dedī datum: give
doceo -ēre -uī doctum: teach
ego me mihi mē: I, me
pauper -eris: poor, lowly
qui, quae, quod: who, which, what; quis quid: who? what? which?
suus -a -um: his own, her own, its own
virtūs -ūtis f.: valor, manliness, virtue