Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Accipiter

Here is today's distich by Martial, 14.217:

Accipiter
Praedo fuit volucrum: famulus nunc aucupis idem
Decipit et captas non sibi maeret aves.


Whilom his own, and now the fowler's thief:
To swoop, not for himself is all his grief.
- Anon.

Here is the vocabulary:

accipiter - hawk
praedo - thief, robber
sum - be, exist
volucer - flying creature, bird
famulus - slave, servant
nunc - now
auceps - bird-catcher
idem - the same
decipio - deceive, cheat, trap
et - and
capto - grab, grasp, seize
non - not, no
se - reflexive pronoun
maereo - grieve, feel sad, mourn
avis - bird