Vitae Sanctorum
Sanctorum vitas legere et non vivere frustra est;
Sanctorum vitas degite, non legite.
’Tis vain Saints Lives to read, and not to lead;
Do both; the lives of Saints, read, lead: lead, read.
Do both; the lives of Saints, read, lead: lead, read.
Source: John Owen (c.1564-c.1628), Epigrammata, 3.80, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey. Meter: Elegiac.
To read (legere) the lives of the saints (sanctorum vitas) and not to live them (et non vivere) is pointless (frustra est); lead the lives of the saints (degite vitas sanctorum), don't just read them (non legite).
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:
dēgo, dēgere: spend, pass, live
et: and
frūstrā: in vain
legō legere lēgī lēctum: gather, choose, read
nōn: not
sānctus -a -um: sacred, inviolable
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
vīta -ae f.: life
vīvō vīvere vīxī victum: live
