Medieval latin translation

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jfontana
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Medieval latin translation

Post by jfontana »

I'm trying to read a medieval Latin text from Saint Ambrose and I stumbled with a passage I'm having problems understanding:
Nec concupiscat plurima , quia et pauca ei plurima sunt; paupertas enim et opes inopiae et satietatis vocabula sunt.
I think the first part could be loosely translated as (correct me if I'm wrong):

"Do not long for too many things, because too many things are the same as few things;"

But then I cannot figure out how to connect the different parts of the sentence after the ';'. I see it talks about poverty and wealth and then there are two nouns in genitive that seem to be coordinated 'inopiae et satietatis' but what I can put together doesn't make much sense: "poverty and wealth are words of lack and abundance". But this cannot be what it means. Can the people who have been working with Latin much longer than I have lend me a hand with this?

JM

I get something like "poverty and wealth are words

adrianus
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Re: Medieval latin translation

Post by adrianus »

Ut opinor anglicè, "Nor should/would he long for many things, because little is as much to him; for poverty and riches are words of neediness and satiety."
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

whsiv
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Re: Medieval latin translation

Post by whsiv »

Alternatively:

Nec concupiscat plurima, quia et pauca ei plurima sunt; paupertas enim et opes inopiae et satietatis vocabula sunt.

"...and let him not desire a lot of things, because even a small number of things is too much for him; for poverty and wealth are words for indigence and abundance."

I feel like paupertas is in correlation with inopiae, and, similarly, opes with satietatis.

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