Friday, March 2, 2012

O Spes Fallaces!

Here is today's distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 3.32. Owen dedicates this distich to his brother, Thomas Owen: Ad Fratrem Suum Thomam Owen.

O Spes Fallaces!
O res fallaces potius; spes vero fideles,
Quae vel ad extremum nos comitantur iter.



O GUILEFUL HOPES!
O rather guileful things; our Hope’s a friend
Most faithful, us concomitates to th’ end.

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:

comitor, -ārī - accompany, go along with
fallax, fallācis - deceitful, misleading, false

ad: to, up to, towards (+acc.)
extrēmus -a -um: farthest, situated at the end or tip, extreme
fidēlis -e: faithful
iter itineris n.: journey, route
nōs nostrum/nostrī nobis nōs: we
potis -e: powerful, able
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
rēs reī f.: thing (rēs pūblica, commonwealth; rēs familiāris, family property, estate; rēs mīlitāris, art of war; rēs novae, revolution)
spēs speī f.: hope
vel: or else, or; even; vel . . . vel: either… or
vērō: in fact, certainly, without doubt