Thursday, July 19, 2012

Res In Se Recurrentes


134     -     135     -     136


Res In Se Recurrentes
Rebus in humanis adeo in se cuncta recurrunt,
   Finis ut unius sit caput alterius.


Source: Joachim Camerarius (1534-1598), Symbola, 4.83. Meter: Elegiac. Camerarius is using the ouroboros to express the cycle of ending and beginning.

In human affairs, (in humanis rebus) all things (cuncta) revolve into one another (recurrunt in se) such that (adeo us) the tail-end of one thing (finis unius) is the head-start of another (sit caput alterius).


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

recurrō, recurrere: run back, return, recur

adeō: (adv.) to such a degree, so
alter altera alterum: other of two
caput capitis n.: head
cūnctus -a -um: entire all together
fīnis -is m.: end, boundary
hūmānus -a -um: human
in: in, on (+ abl.); into, onto (+ acc)
rēs reī f.: thing (rēs pūblica, commonwealth; rēs familiāris, family property, estate; rēs mīlitāris, art of war; rēs novae, revolution)
sui, sibi, sē: him- her- itself
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
ūnus -a -um: one
ut, uti: as (+ indic.); so that, with the result that (+ subj.)