Breakdown of Post brevem diem in schola corpus discipuli iam laborare non vult, sed mens eius laeta manet.
Questions & Answers about Post brevem diem in schola corpus discipuli iam laborare non vult, sed mens eius laeta manet.
In Latin, post meaning “after” (in time) takes the accusative case.
- post brevem diem = after a short day
- diem = accusative singular of dies (“day”)
- brevem agrees with diem (same case, number, gender)
So diem is accusative because it is the object of the preposition post.
The phrase breaks down like this:
- post = after
- brevem diem = a short day (accusative, object of post)
- in schola = in (the) school (ablative, place where)
Put together:
post brevem diem in schola = after a short day in school.
Grammatically:
- post governs brevem diem (accusative).
- in governs schola (ablative), showing location.
Word order is flexible, but this is a very normal arrangement.
corpus discipuli literally means “the body of the student”:
- corpus = body (nominative singular, subject)
- discipuli = of the student (genitive singular)
The Latin sentence is drawing a contrast:
- corpus discipuli iam laborare non vult
= the student’s body no longer wants to work - sed mens eius laeta manet
= but his mind remains happy.
So the author personifies the body as if it had its own will, separate from the mind.
You could instead say discipulus laborare non vult (“the student does not want to work”), but you would lose that neat contrast body vs. mind.
In corpus discipuli iam laborare non vult, the subject is:
- corpus (nominative → subject)
- discipuli is genitive (“of the student”), not a subject.
The finite verb vult (3rd person singular) must agree with the subject corpus, which is also singular:
- corpus … vult = the body wants
If discipuli were the subject (nominative plural), the verb would need to be volunt (the students want), but here it’s clearly a genitive singular.
Verbs of wishing/wanting (like volo, velle) are regularly followed by a complementary infinitive in Latin.
- vult laborare = he/she/it wants to work
- vult = wants
- laborare = to work (infinitive)
If you wrote corpus discipuli laborat non vult, that would be ungrammatical and confusing.
You must keep: vult + infinitive = “wants to …”.
iam is a very flexible adverb. Here, with a negative (non vult), it conveys the sense of “no longer / not anymore.”
- iam laborare non vult
Literally: already does not want to work,
Idiomatically: no longer wants to work or doesn’t want to work anymore.
So it emphasizes that a change has occurred: earlier the body could/would work; now, after a short day at school, it doesn’t want to anymore.
in schola = in (the) school.
Here, in indicates location (“where?”), so it takes the ablative case:
- in
- ablative = in, on (place where)
- schola = ablative singular of schola (“school”)
If in showed motion into a place, it would take the accusative (e.g. in scholam = into the school).
This touches on an important Latin distinction:
- suus, -a, -um = “his/her/its/their own,” reflexive; it refers back to the subject of the clause.
- eius = “his/her/its” (non-reflexive); it refers to someone/something else.
In sed mens eius laeta manet:
- subject = mens (mind)
- eius = “his” (referring to the student, not to the mind itself)
If you wrote mens sua, the natural reading in Latin is “its own mind” (the mind’s own mind), which is odd. You want “the mind of that person (the student)”, so you use eius.
laeta is:
- feminine
- singular
- nominative
It agrees with mens:
- mens is a feminine noun (3rd declension), nominative singular.
- Adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case.
So mens laeta = the happy mind or his mind is happy.
manet comes from maneo, manere = “to remain, stay, continue to be.”
- mens eius laeta manet = his mind remains (stays) happy.
If you wrote mens eius laeta est, that would mean his mind is happy (a simple statement of fact).
Using manet adds the nuance of continuity:
after the short, tiring day at school, the happiness of his mind continues, persists. It contrasts nicely with the body, which now no longer wants to work.
Both brevem diem and diem brevem are grammatically correct.
General tendencies:
- Adjectives often follow the noun, but can come before for emphasis, style, or with certain kinds of adjectives (like size, quantity, evaluative adjectives: magnus, parvus, brevis, etc.).
- brevem diem slightly foregrounds “short”: the shortness of the day is highlighted.
The difference is subtle here; brevem diem is perfectly natural, and diem brevem would also be fine, just slightly less idiomatic in this context.
sed is the most common simple “but” in Latin, marking straightforward contrast:
- corpus … non vult, sed mens … laeta manet
= the body does not want to work, but the mind remains happy.
autem often means “however” and tends to come after the first word of the clause; it can feel a bit weaker or more “transitional.”
at is a stronger, often rhetorical “but!” (sometimes like “whereas” or “on the other hand”).
Here the contrast is clear but not especially dramatic or argumentative, so plain sed is the most natural choice.
You can see the sentence as two coordinated clauses joined by sed:
Post brevem diem in schola corpus discipuli iam laborare non vult,
- Prepositional phrase: Post brevem diem in schola
- Subject: corpus discipuli
- Adverb: iam
- Verb: vult
- Complementary infinitive: laborare
- Negation: non
sed mens eius laeta manet.
- Conjunction: sed
- Subject: mens
- Possessive: eius
- Predicate adjective: laeta
- Linking/verb of state: manet
So:
After a short day in school, the student’s body no longer wants to work, but his mind remains happy.