Quis Mendicum Amat?
Cum sim mendicus, cognosco quis sit amicus;
Me quis amet video, deficiente meo.
Source: Proverbia Rusticorum Versificata (ed. Zacher), 118. Meter: Elegiac. Note the rhyme in the dactylic line: mendicus-amicus, along with a weak rhyme (video-meo) in the pentameter line.
The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There is only one word in this poem that is not on the DCC list:
mendīcus, -a, -um: needy, poor; beggar
amīcus -a -um: friendly; (as subst.) friend
amo -āre: to love
cōgnōsco -ere -gnōvī -gnitum: learn, understand
cum: with (prep. + abl.); when, since, although (conjunction + subj.)
deficio -ere -fēcī -fectum: fail, give out; revolt from
ego me mihi mē: I, me
meus -a -um: my
qui, quae, quod: who, which, what; quis quid: who? what? which?
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
video -ēre vīdī vīsum: see
(image source - full size poster; poster made with AutoMotivator)
