Sunday, March 25, 2012

Deus

Here is today's distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 3.43. As often, Owen plays with the paradoxical tension between the two lines: God is both measurelessly great, but at the same time he is but one.

Deus
Immensus Deus est, quia scilicet omnia mensus;
Innumerabilis est, unus enim Deus est.


GOD
God is Immense, all measuring alone:
And He’s Innumerable; for but but one.

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There are three words which are not on the DCC list:

immensus -a -um - immeasurable, limitless, vast
innumerābilis, innumerābile; innumerābilis - countless, innumerable
mētior, mētīrī, mensus - measure, distribute, mete

deus -ī m.; dea -ae f. god; goddess
enim: for, indeed
omnis -e: all, every, as a whole
quia: because
scilicet: certainly, of course
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
ūnus -a -um: one