Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Pauper Egens, Non Carens

This poem is from the proverbial distichs of Georgius Carolides (1569-1612), which you can read online at the University of Mannheim.

Pauper Egens, Non Carens
Pauper homo est auri cupidus, non qui caret auro;
Qui scit nil cupere et vivere, dives homo est.

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

cupidus, -a, -um: desirous, greedy, eager
egeo, egēre: lack, be without, need

aurum -ī n.: gold
careō -ēre -uī: lack (+ abl.)
cupiō -ere -īvī -ītum: desire
dīves, dīvitis: rich (poet. dīs, dītis)
et: and
homo hominis m.: human being
nihil, nīl: nothing; not at all
nōn: not
pauper -eris: poor, lowly
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
sciō -īre -īvī/-iī -ītum: know
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
vīvō vīvere vīxī victum: live