Salvete all.
I've just finished translating the very last of the end of chapter passages in Wheelock. Huzzah! Now it's onto the LA and LI at the back of the book. Which isn't exactly as celebration inducing a prospect! Anyhoo, the final passages wouldn't have felt right if they hadn't caused me all sorts of problems, and, obliging as Wheelock is, they duly did so. So, any help with the following would be appreciated:
Olli subridens hominum sator atque deorum
vultu, quo caelum tempestatesque serenat,
oscula libavit natae, dehinc talia fatur:
I don't understand how the first passage in bold can be "by which/whom the sky and seasons brighten". Surely the verb would be in the trird person plural if that were the case? Also, the answer key has "fatur" as spoke, whereas I translated it as in the present tense.
That's about it this time. Thanks...
Einhard.
Translation
- Einhard
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Re: Translation
historic present, i.e., also "he said/spoke" // nonnè tempus praesens historicum est?The father of men and the gods, smiling at her with a look by which he [Jupiter typically] brightens the sky and its weather, kissed [his] daughter, thereupon the following [/such things] he says...
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.
- ptolemyauletes
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Re: Translation
As Adrianus has written this is the historical present tense, used for emphasis, or to create a sense of urgency or 'being there'. I always use the example of telling a story of last night's bar adventure to a friend. ' So last night I went to this bar and a guy bumped into me. So I say to him "hey man, what's your problem?" And he says to me "up yours!"
Historical present... specifically designed for retelling bar fight stories...
Historical present... specifically designed for retelling bar fight stories...
The only thing we can guarantee when communicating via the internet is that we will be almost completely misunderstood, and likely cause great offence in doing so. Throw in an attempt at humour and you insure a lifelong enemy will be made.
- Einhard
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Re: Translation
Thank God for bar brawls! Is there anything so esoteric that their example can't illuminate?!
Much obliged.
Much obliged.