Sunday, June 17, 2012

Ex ore astrologi

This is from the enormous anthology of distich poetry assembled by Barthold Nihus, Epigrammata Disticha, published in 1642; this is an anonymous poem making fun of astrologers and other soothsayers such as Nostradamus.

Ex ore astrologi
Nostra damus, cum falsa damus: nam fallere nostrum est;
Et cum nostra damus, non nisi falsa damus.


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:

astrologus, astrologī m. - astronomer, astrologer

cum: with (prep. + abl.); when, since, although (conjunction + subj.)
dō dare dedī datum: give
et: and
ex ē: out of, from (+ abl.)
fallō fallere fefellī falsum: deceive
falsus -a -um: deceptive, false
nam or namque: for, indeed, really
nisi/nī: if not, unless
nōn: not
noster nostra nostrum: our
ōs ōris n.: mouth, face
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist