Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Avaritia

Here is another distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 7.114:

Avaritia
Undique fluminibus currentibus in mare magnum,
Non ait “Unde venis?” aequor, at “Unda, veni.”

COVETOUSNESS
To th’ Ocean, Rivers run all places from:
It saith not “whence d’ye come,” but “hither come.”

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There is only one word in this poem that is not on the DCC list:

avāritia, f. - greed, avarice

aequor aequoris n.: level surface, sea, plain
aiō: say, affirm, say yes; ut aiunt: as they say
at: but, but yet
currō currere cucurrī cursum: run
flūmen -inis n.: stream, river
in: in, on (+ abl.); into, onto (+ acc)
māgnus -a -um great
mare -is f.: sea
nōn: not
unda -ae f.: wave, flowing water, water
unde: from where
undique: from all sides, on all sides
veniō venīre vēnī ventum: come