Meanwhile, for those of you interested in the Proverbs of the Day and the Fable of the Day, you can still find them online: Greek Proverbs | Audio Latin Proverbs | Proverbia Brevissima | Proverbia Brevia (3) | Animal Proverbs | Proper Name Proverbs | Vulgate Verses | Aesop's Fable of the Day.
And now, here are the short poems for today! These poems come from the epigrams of John Owen, a remarkable figure of the Latin poetry Renaissance, who was known under various Latin names: Joannes Oweni, Joannes Ovenus and even Joannes Audoenus. There is a lovely edition of the epigrams, in both Latin and English, which Dana Sutton has put online: The Epigrammata of John Owen (Ioannis Audoenus) (1606 - 1613). You can also find a nice edition at GoogleBooks.
I hope you will enjoy these little poems - each of them has an elegant little twist of some kind, as you would expect from a fine epigram!
Saepe rogas, 'Quot habes annos?' respondeo: 'Nullos.'
Quomodo? quos habui, || Pontice, non habeo.
Source: Owen 3.114 (Dictionary Help) - This one is my favorite from the poems for today!
Rerum regina est ratio, naturaque mater.
Naturam ratio || nos iubet ergo sequi.
Source: Owen 3.72 (Dictionary Help)
Non vixisse diu vita est, at vivere vita est.
Quid iuvat ergo diu || vivere, deinde mori?
Source: Owen 3.55 (Dictionary Help)
Immensus Deus est, quia scilicet omnia mensus.
Innumerabilis est, || unus enim Deus est.
Source: Owen 3.20 (Dictionary Help)
Mortuus ut vivas, vivus moriaris oportet:
Assuesce ergo prius || quam moriare mori.
Source: Owen 3.49 (Dictionary Help)
Principium dulce est, at finis amoris amarus;
laeta venire Venus, || tristis abire solet.
Flumina quaesitum sic in mare dulcia currunt;
postquam gustarunt || aequor, amara fluunt.
Source: Owen 1.13 (Dictionary Help)
Illa mihi patria est ubi pascor, non ubi nascor,
Illa ubi sum notus, || non ubi natus eram.
Source: Owen 7.100 (Dictionary Help) - The word play in this one is delightful!
Flumina fluminibus distant, sic nos quoque nobis,
Dum sumus in vita || nos, fluviique via.
Ingressus pelagum sapor amnibus omnibus idem,
Mors omnes homines || aequat, ut aequor aquas.
Source: Owen 5.80 (Dictionary Help)
Est amor in nobis, in lignis ut latet ignis,
ignis uti lignum, || nos levis urit amor.
Ligna sed in cineres vanescunt, ignis in auras;
nos cinis, et noster, || quid nisi fumus, amor?
Source: Owen 4.229 (Dictionary Help)
Sole oriente, tui reditus a morte memento.
Sis memor occasus, || sole cadente, tui.
Source: Owen 5.39 (Dictionary Help)
Sum crudus, vocor inde cruor, per corpora curro.
Volvor, et in venis || sanguis ut anguis eo.
Source: Owen 7.29 (Dictionary Help) - More word play! Who can resist "sanguis ut anguis eo"...?
Pauper in orbe parum, mendicus nil habet usquam,
dives habet nimium. || Quis nisi nemo satis?
Source: Owen 7.35 (Dictionary Help)
Pendentes agimus vitas in littore mortis,
Tam prope mors vitae est, || quam prope margo mari.
Una fere res est homini mors vitaque, sicut
Efficiunt unum || terraque et unda globum.
Source: Owen 4.247 (Dictionary Help)
