Is there any easy Latin literature I can read yet?
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Is there any easy Latin literature I can read yet?
I'm on Chapter VII on LL. I know I'm rushing, but I want to read some Latin lit already! :p. Is there anything out there, anything at all, that I would be able to read at my level?
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Re: Is there any easy Latin literature I can read yet?
Corrections are welcome (especially for projects).
Blogger Profile My library at the Internet Archive
Meae editiones librorum. Αἱ ἐμαὶ ἐκδόσεις βίβλων.
Blogger Profile My library at the Internet Archive
Meae editiones librorum. Αἱ ἐμαὶ ἐκδόσεις βίβλων.
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Re: Is there any easy Latin literature I can read yet?
There are texts which aim to get an absolute beginner reading Caesar, albeit in small doses. You may wish to check out The Inductive Latin Primer - http://books.google.com/books/about/An_ ... 4AAAAAYAAJ, The Inductive Latin Method - http://books.google.com/books?id=lq0AAAAAYAAJ, or Bellum Helveticum - http://books.google.com/books?id=K31fAAAAMAAJ. A more modern book doing the same, which I don't particularly like, is I Came, I Saw, I Translated.
Last edited by naturalphilosopher on Wed Jan 06, 2016 5:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Is there any easy Latin literature I can read yet?
Here’s the fable of the tortoise and the hare, whose moral you might do well to heed, so long as it doesn’t quash your ardor.
Pedes Testudinis
Lepus olim deridebat.
Cui
illa subridens,
"Ego vero" inquit
"te, quamvis velocem,
in cursu tamen superabo."
Quod
impossibile omnino fore
Lepus affirmans,
"Mecum," inquit, "o Testudo,
in certamen veni,
et
mei quid pedes valeant
aperte cognosces."
Cui
Testudo adsibilans,
"Ecquis nobis," ait,
"cursus metam describet
ac victoriae laudem decernet?"
Tunc Vulpes,
brutorum omnium sagacissima,
initium ac metam,
nec non curriculi locum
designavit.
Testudo itaque,
nulla mora interiecta,
iter illico arripiens,
ad praescriptum terminum
tandem pervenit;
sed Lepus interea,
suis pedibus nimium confidens,
placidum soporem captavit.
Deinde vero
somno excitatus,
effuso cursu
ad metam
et ipse contendit,
at ibi
Testudinem dormientem invenit.
(As presented by Laura Gibbs in her Bestiaria Latina blog, slightly tweaked)
Pedes Testudinis
Lepus olim deridebat.
Cui
illa subridens,
"Ego vero" inquit
"te, quamvis velocem,
in cursu tamen superabo."
Quod
impossibile omnino fore
Lepus affirmans,
"Mecum," inquit, "o Testudo,
in certamen veni,
et
mei quid pedes valeant
aperte cognosces."
Cui
Testudo adsibilans,
"Ecquis nobis," ait,
"cursus metam describet
ac victoriae laudem decernet?"
Tunc Vulpes,
brutorum omnium sagacissima,
initium ac metam,
nec non curriculi locum
designavit.
Testudo itaque,
nulla mora interiecta,
iter illico arripiens,
ad praescriptum terminum
tandem pervenit;
sed Lepus interea,
suis pedibus nimium confidens,
placidum soporem captavit.
Deinde vero
somno excitatus,
effuso cursu
ad metam
et ipse contendit,
at ibi
Testudinem dormientem invenit.
(As presented by Laura Gibbs in her Bestiaria Latina blog, slightly tweaked)
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Re: Is there any easy Latin literature I can read yet?
I assume LL is 'Lingua Latina,' but Thirty-Eight Latin Stories Designed to Accompany Wheelock's Latin can be had used cheaply on Amazon. It's not the most mellifluous Latin ever composed, but it's meant to enable the student to, just as you say, read something in a progressive fashion, and begin reading with not much more than the present indicative and the first declension.
Ritchie's time-tested Fabulae Faciles ('Easy Stories') are available free in .pdf format here http://geoffreysteadman.com/ritchies-fabulae-faciles/. The author also writes in Latin much more comfortably than the authors of the above. The Perseus section, the first, can be gone through as soon as you acquire familiarity, I think, with the first three noun declensions and the indicative tenses. Rereading to the point of disgust is recommended at your stage.
Ne scriptor propter taedium somno capiatur, liceat discenti legere.
Ritchie's time-tested Fabulae Faciles ('Easy Stories') are available free in .pdf format here http://geoffreysteadman.com/ritchies-fabulae-faciles/. The author also writes in Latin much more comfortably than the authors of the above. The Perseus section, the first, can be gone through as soon as you acquire familiarity, I think, with the first three noun declensions and the indicative tenses. Rereading to the point of disgust is recommended at your stage.
Ne scriptor propter taedium somno capiatur, liceat discenti legere.