Dein, cum mīlia multa fēcerīmus

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pmda
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Dein, cum mīlia multa fēcerīmus

Post by pmda »

In LLPSI Orberg has this line from Horace: '...Dein, cum mīlia multa fēcerīmus'

He then puts into the margin by way of explanation: fēcerimus

- same word but with out the macron over the 'i'. Can anyone explain what he's saying..?

timeodanaos
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Re: Dein, cum mīlia multa fēcerīmus

Post by timeodanaos »

The tense is supposed to be perfect future, which in grammars you will find to have a short i, whereas the perfect subjunctive has the long i. In practice, however, Roman poets don't differentiate between these two forms morphologically, but choose one or the other quantity metri causa. It has to be perfect future because a simple future follows in the main clause.

This is a nice poem, but it always seemed to me that you can't enjoy it unless you're actually in love. That said, I think I'll reread it when I get home!

adrianus
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Re: Dein, cum mīlia multa fēcerīmus

Post by adrianus »

Here's my attempt at getting the poem into a hendecasyllabic rhythm in English
En conatus meus poematis in versus anglicos hendecasyllabicos convertendi
Catullus 5 wrote:Vīvāmus, mea Lesbia, atque amēmus,
rūmōrēsque senum sevēriōrum
omnēs ūnius aestimēmus assis!
sōlēs occidere et redīre possunt:
nōbīs cum semel occidit brevis lux,
nox est perpetua ūna dormienda.
dā mī bāsia mille, deinde centum,
dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum.
dein, cum mīlia multa fēcerīmus,
conturbābimus illa, nē sciāmus,
aut nē quis malus invidēre possit,
cum tantum sciat esse bāsiōrum.

Let's, my Lesbia, live and let us love and
All the gossip of rather grumpy old men
Value no more than but a single penny.
Days can come and the days can go away again;
Our brief daylight no sooner than it fades from us
There's the one neverending night to sleep through.
Give me one thousand kisses, then a hundred
Then one more thousand, then a second hundred,
Then the next thousand, followed by a hundred
Then when we would have given many thousands
We will jumble them up so that we can't know
Nor could some one who wished us ill be jealous
Were it known just how many kisses there are.
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.

jamesbath
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Re: Dein, cum mīlia multa fēcerīmus

Post by jamesbath »

Adriane,
Translatio tua pulchella est. Sed non possum amplius origine disceptatio, quia ignorantia mea.
(Pretty translation. But I can't add to the original discussion because I don't know enough Latin).

Iacobus Balneum

pmda
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Re: Dein, cum mīlia multa fēcerīmus

Post by pmda »

Gratias vobis ago.

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