Saturday, July 14, 2012

Non Omnia


71     -     72     -     73


Non Omnia
Omnia non dicas quae scis, non omnia credas,
   Nec facere hoc semper quod potes omne velis.


Source: Anton Moker (1540-1605), Decalogus Metricus. Meter: Elegiac. Note the use of the subjunctives (dicas, credas, velis) to express the notion of a command.

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. All the words in this poem are on that list:

crēdō crēdere crēdidī crēditum: believe
dīcō dīcere dīxī dictum: say; causam dicere, plead a case; diem dicere, appoint a day
faciō facere fēcī factum: do, make
hic haec hoc: this; hōc: on this account
neque nec: and not, nor; neque . . . neque, neither . . . nor
nōn: not
omnis -e: all, every, as a whole
possum posse potuī: be able
qui quae quod: who, which, what / quis quid: who? what? which?
sciō -īre -īvī/-iī -ītum: know
semper: always, ever
volō velle voluī: wish, be willing



Not Everything
You should not say (non dicas) everything that you know (omnia quae scis), you should not believe everything (non credas omnia), and you shouldn't want (nec velis) to always do everything (facere semper hoomne) which you can do (quod potes).

Omnia ~ non di~cas quae ~ scis, non ~ omnia ~ credas,
   Nec face~re hoc sem~per | quod potes ~ omne ve~lis.