Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Quod Facis, Fac Libenter

This poem is from a book published in 1624 by Jean Pignewart (Iohannes Pignevvart), a Cistercian monk and scholar. He attributes his collection of distich poetry to "Cato Bernardinus," invoking both the legendary "Cato" of Latin distich fame and also Saint Bernard of Clairveax who was famously associated with the Cistercian order.

Quod Facis, Fac Libenter
Rectum si quid agas, ut agas curato libenter;
Nil agis invitus, si bona multa facis.

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

invītus, -a, -um: unwilling, reluctant
libenter: freely, gladly, with pleasure

aliquis -quae -quod: some, any; si quis, si quid: anyone who, anything that
bonus -a -um: good
cūrō -āre: care for (+ acc.)
faciō facere fēcī factum: do, make
multus -a -um: much, many; multō, by far
nihil, nīl: nothing; not at all
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
rectus -a -um: straight, direct
sī: if
ut, uti: as (+ indic.); so that, with the result that (+ subj.)