Saturday, July 21, 2012

Paradoxon, ad Amicam Absentem

Here is another distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 1.150:

Paradoxon, ad Amicam Absentem
Uror amore miser, tantoque potentius uror
Quanto qui me urit longius ignis abest.



I burn with Love: And I the more am burn’d,
The more remote from me the Fire is turn’d.

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:

paradoxon (Greek noun - n.): paradox
ūrō, ūrere: burn, inflame, scorch

absum abesse afuī: be away, absent
ad: to, up to, towards (+acc.)
amīcus -a -um: friendly; (as subst.) friend
amor -ōris m.: love
ego meī mihi mē: I, me
īgnis -is m.: fire
longus -a -um: long, far; longē: far, far off
miser misera miserum: wretched, pitiable
potēns potentis: able, powerful
quantus -a -um: (interr.) how great? (rel.) of what size, amount, etc.
que (enclitic) - and
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
tantus -a -um: so great, so much; tantum: only