Friday, June 8, 2012

Summa Dies

This is a distich from Daniël Heinsius' emblem collection entitled Quaeris quid sit amor? (sometimes also titled: Emblemata amatoria) published c. 1601. You can find the book online at the Emblem Project Utrecht.

Nec platani lethum vitem, nec tollet amorem
Nostrum, quae tollit cetera, summa dies.


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

lētum, lētī n. - death (sometimes written lethum)
platanus, platanī m. - plane tree
vītis, vītis f. - vine, grapevine

amor -ōris m.: love
cēterus -a -um: the others, the rest; adv. cēterum: for the rest, in addition, however, that may be
diēs diēī m./f.: day
neque nec: and not, nor; neque . . . neque, neither . . . nor
noster nostra nostrum: our
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
summus -a -um: highest, farthest, last
tollō tollere sustulī sublātum: raise up, destroy