annoying reflexives

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solitario
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annoying reflexives

Post by solitario »

SALVETE OMNES!
I'm having trouble with the parts in [brackets]. Any help is appreciated.

Multae puellae eum amābant; [nūllam ex eīs ille amābat.]
Many girles loved him; [he himself loved none of them.]

[Ipse sē sōlum dīligēbat] et vītam in silvīs agēbat.
[Himself he esteemed only himself] and led a life in the woods.

VALETE BENE!

Democritus
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Post by Democritus »

Sometimes ille and iste are translated as "he himself," which makes them sound like they are reflexive, because the English word "himself" is also used a reflexive. But the only reflexive pronoun in your Latin sentences is the word "se".

In this case, we might prefer to render ille and iste into English using some words other than "he himself." You could just use the word "he," or you could use some kind of phrase like "that man" or "for his part, he..."

Try this: take a step back from the words, and think about the thought contained in the sentences. If you wanted to express these ideas using your own words, how would you say it? Pretend you are explaining this idea to a friend of yours.

Then look at your own words and see if they give you some ideas on how to improve the translation of these two sentences. Your translation must be faithful to the original, but it has to be sensible English, too.

solitario
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Post by solitario »

Thanks Democritus.
That does help. It is very odd how a language with so many rules can be so flexible.

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