Sunday, June 17, 2012

Omnia Nihil

Here is another distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 4.120:

Omnia Nihil
Omnia de nihilo qui fecit, is omnia solus;
Quod Deus ex nihilo fecit, id omne nihil.

ALL THINGS NOTHING
All things who made of Nothing, He’s sole All:
What God of Nothing made, we Nothing call.

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. All the words in this poem are on that list:

dē: down from, about, concerning (+ abl.)
deus -ī m.; dea -ae f. god; goddess
ex ē: out of, from (+ abl.)
faciō facere fēcī factum: do, make
is ea id: he, she, it
nihil, nīl: nothing; not at all
omnis -e: all, every, as a whole
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
sōlus -a -um: only, alone; sōlum (adv.), only, merely