Tempus Tuum
Res est una, tuam possis quam dicere: tempus.
Utere! Dum cessas, desinit esse tuum.
Source: François Oudin (1673-1752), Silva Distichorum, 286. Meter: Elegiac. The implied complement of the imperative utere is time: utere tempore.
There is one thing (res est una) which (quam) you can call yours (possis dicere tuam): time (tempus). Use it! (utere) When you cease to use it (dum cessas), it ceases (desinit) to be yours (esse tuum).
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:
cessō, cessāre: delay, stop, cease
dēsinō -sinere -sīvī -situm: leave off, cease
dīcō dīcere dīxī dictum: say; causam dicere, plead a case; diem dicere, appoint a day
dum: while (+ indic.); until (+ subj.); provided that (+ subj.)
possum posse potuī: be able
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
rēs reī f.: thing (rēs pūblica, commonwealth; rēs familiāris, family property, estate; rēs mīlitāris, art of war; rēs novae, revolution)
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
tempus -oris n.: time
tuus -a -um: your
ūnus -a -um: one
ūtor ūtī ūsus sum: use
