Mortificatio

Here is today's distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 3.48. He addressed the poem Ad Amicum Quemdam Senescentem, To an Aging Friend.

Mortificatio
Mortuus ut vivas, vivus moriaris oportet:
Assuesce ergo prius quam moriare mori.

MORTIFICATION
We live to die, and die to live: O why
Then learn we not to die, before we die?

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There are only three words in this poem that are not on the DCC list:

assuescō -ere, assuēvī, assuētum - accustom onself to, be accustomed to
mortificātio, mortificātiōnis f. - killing, death
vīvus -a -um - living, alive

ergo: therefore
morior morī mortuus sum: die
oportet -ēre -uit: it is proper, right (+ acc. + infin.)
prior -ius: earlier, preceding; prius or priusquam: before
quam: how?; (after comparative) than
ut, uti: as (+ indic.); so that, with the result that (+ subj.)
vīvō vīvere vīxī victum: live

(J. G. Posada)