My reading from
Brevissima today is #94, to which has been appended the title, "Rex Populi Lux Animusque," from
Adagiorum Maxime Vulgarium Thesaurus (1730). The theme is the glorification of the monarch, a theme distasteful to me (to say the very least); indeed, it is hard to imagine a more un-Roman or un-American theme for a poem. The Latin text is as follows:
Quod sol in mundo, cor quodque in corpore, rex est
In regno, populi lux animusque sui.
Which I render in English:
What the sun is in the world, and what the heart is in the body, the king is
In his kingdom, the light and soul of his people.
What a sentiment to find in the tongue that gave the world the word "republic!"
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