Here is today's distich by Cato (so-called), 4.37, with English translations by Duff and Chase.
Tempora longa tibi noli promittere vitae:
Quocumque incedis, sequitur mors corporis umbra.
Count not on life: howe'er thy way may wend,
Death shadowlike will everywhere attend.
(Chase)
Thyself to promise years of life forbear;
Death, like they shadow, dogs thee everywhere.
(Duff)
Death shadowlike will everywhere attend.
(Chase)
Thyself to promise years of life forbear;
Death, like they shadow, dogs thee everywhere.
(Duff)
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:
incēdo -ere, incessī, incessum - advance, march, walk
corpus, corporis n.: body
longus -a -um: long, far; longē, far, far off
mors mortis f.: death
nōlo nōlle, nōluī: be unwilling
prōmitto -mittere -mīsī -missum: send forth, offer
quī-, quae-, quodcumque: who-, whatever
sequor sequī secūtus sum: follow
tempus -oris n.: time
tū tuī tibi tē: you (sing.)
umbra -ae f.: shade, shadow
vīta -ae f.: life
