stuck on a basic translation...

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ruruinthenight
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Location: New Zealand

stuck on a basic translation...

Post by ruruinthenight »

Hi there

Any help please?

I'm to translate this (painfully basic) sentence:

feminae quae ad fontem adsunt Horatiae matrem salutant.

I've come up with either:

The women who are there at the spring greet Horatia’s mother.
OR
The women who are at the spring greet Horatia’s mother there/ there greet Horatia's mother.

It just feels a bit wrong; 'ad' so far in my coursework has meant 'to' as opposed to 'at', and my translation of 'adsunt' feels clunky.

Any advice would be fabulam! No wait, I mean fabulous :wink:
Thanks!

whsiv
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Re: stuck on a basic translation...

Post by whsiv »

Salve,

Your translation "the women who are at the spring greet Horatia's mother" is correct.

It's a good instinct to translate ad as "to," but when it's paired (as it is here) with a verb that doesn't describe any motion, adsunt, but rather describes the location of the subject, "at" is the better choice.

Beyond this, in this particular example, in English the idea of "at" is necessary only once, whereas in the Latin you can plainly see it twice: ad fontem adsunt. Frequently when you're turning Latin into English, it will be hard to come up with a perfect 1-to-1, word-for-word translation.

ruruinthenight
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Aug 11, 2013 4:44 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: stuck on a basic translation...

Post by ruruinthenight »

Salve!

Hey, thanks for your help - it must become tiresome dealing with new beginners over and over again (which I forgot to mention I was, but which is nonetheless fairly evident!) - I do appreciate it! I did wonder if I was focussing too heavily on a word-for-word translation. I'm finding translation a bit of a balancing act between not neglecting the fine nuances and adjusting the translation to achieve a smooth and realistic result.

Many thanks again!
Amber

adrianus
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Re: stuck on a basic translation...

Post by adrianus »

Adesse is a richer word than esse and wants a little more than "to be", I would say. You can translate "who are present", "who meet", "who assemble", "who convene", "who have come", "who have arrived", "who are still there".
Verbum "adesse" enim plus quam anglicè "to be" dicere vult, ut opinor.
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.

ruruinthenight
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Re: stuck on a basic translation...

Post by ruruinthenight »

adrianus wrote:Adesse is a richer word than esse and wants a little more than "to be", I would say. You can translate "who are present", "who meet", "who assemble", "who convene", "who have come", "who have arrived", "who are still there".
Verbum "adesse" enim plus quam anglicè "to be" dicere vult, ut opinor.
Thank you! This not only makes sense, but is very interesting! Ahhh, language.

I have completed my (not yet submitted) assignment, and have several more sentences which I have struggled with. I would really appreciate any feedback on those, too, but I'm reluctant as a Super Newbie to just dump them on here and scrounge for help... I thought I should ask if that's OK/not terribly annoying first.
Thanks again

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