Animula vagula blandula

Animula vagula blandula is the first line of a poem which appears in the Historia Augusta as the work of the dying emperor Hadrian.

It has been extensively studied and there are numerous translations.

[1] The author of the Historia Augusta was disparaging but later authors such as Isaac Casaubon were more respectful.

[2] It was translated by D. Johnston as follows: Some translators take the adjectives in line 4 as neuter plural, agreeing with the word loca (places), but the majority take them as feminine singular, describing the soul.

Each line is underlyingly an iambic dimeter (u – u – | u – u –), but in lines 1 and 4 the first two long elements have been resolved into two short syllables, making tribrachs (u uu u uu | u – u –).