Tempus Volubile
Cuncta trahit secum vertitque volubile tempus,
Nec patitur certa currere quemque via.
Source: Adagiorum Maxime Vulgarium Thesaurus (1730). Meter: Elegiac. Note that the phrase certa via is in the ablative, certā viā, "on a sure way, along a definite path."
Time as it rolls (tempus) drags everything with it (cuncta trahit secum) and turns as it rolls (vertitque volubile), and it allows no one (nec patitur quemque) to run along a fixed path (certa currere via).
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:
volūbilis, -e (volūbilis): winding, twisting, rolling
certus -a -um: sure, fixed; certē, certainly, surely
cum: with (prep. + abl.); when, since, although (conjunction + subj.)
cūnctus -a -um: entire all together
currō currere cucurrī cursum: run
neque nec: and not, nor; neque . . . neque, neither . . . nor
patior patī passus sum: permit, endure
que (enclitic) - and
quis- quae- quidque: each one, everyone
sui, sibi, sē: him- her- itself
tempus -oris n.: time
trahō trahere trāxī trāctum: drag, draw
vertō vertere vertī versum: turn
via -ae f.: way, street
