Compatiens
Si videas aliquem casurum sive cadentem,
Non ride, at potius gere te sibi compatientem.
Source: Andreas Gartner, Proverbialia Dicteria (1578). Meter: Dactylic Hexameter. Note the nice end-line rhyme: cadentem-compatientem.
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:
compatior, compatī: suffer together, feel compassion
If you should see someone (si videas aliquem) about to fall or falling (casurum sive cadentem), don't laugh (non ride), but rather (at potius) conduct yourself (gere te) compassionately (sibi compatientem).
aliquis -quae -quod: some, any; si quis, si quid: anyone who, anything that
at: but, but yet
cado cadere cecidī cāsum: fall, be killed
gero gerere gessī gestum: bear, manage; bellum gerere, wage war
nōn: not
potis -e: powerful, able
rīdeo -ēre rīsī rīsum: laugh, laugh at
sī: if
sīve, seu: whether; sīve . . . sīve, whether . . . or
sui, sibi, sē: him- her- itself
tū tuī tibi tē: you (sing.)
video -ēre vīdī vīsum: see
