[Urgent] - I do not understand this passage at all....

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awlright
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[Urgent] - I do not understand this passage at all....

Post by awlright »

quamquam Corellius mori volebat, hoc unum ei persuasit ut diutius viveret: quod imperator Domitianus odio ei erat, mortem eius publice nuntiatam audire voluit. ego eram inter amicos Corellium aegrum visitantes: Corellius mihi 'cur' inquit 'me putas hos tantos dolores tam diu ferre? cupio isti latroni etiam uno die superesse.' precibus eius a deo auditis, paucis post diebus imperator Domitianus a liberto suo necatus est. itaque Corellius statim e vita effugere constituit. quattor dies nullum cibum consumpsit. uxor eius Hispulla ad me servum misit; qui nuntiavit Corellium mortem cupientem precibus neque uxoris nec filiae inflecti posse; solum me eum ad vitam revocare posse. ad villam eius cucurri sed simulac in cubiculum irrupi cognovi ne me quidem Corelli persuadere posse: iam enim etiam obstinator erat. medico arcessito et cibum offerenti dixit: 'constitui': quod verbum postea et triste et mirabile mihi visum est, cum intellexissem quantus amicus, quantus vir periisset.

Although Cornellius wanted to die, this one persuaded him to live for a longer time: because the the emperor Domitian was hated by him, he wanted to hear the public death of him announced. I had been among the friends visiting the sick Corellius: Corellius said to me, “Why do you suppose that I carry this great pain for so long a time? I want to outlive you robbers even for one day.” With his prayers having been heard by the God, after a few days, the emperor Domitian was killed by his freedman. In this way, Cornelius at once, decided to escape from his life. For four days, he did not eat any food. His wife, Hispulla sent a slave to me: who announced Corellius, wanting death, with the prayers be able to dissuade neither his wife nor his daughters; alone I was not able to bring him back to life. I ran to his villain, but as soon as I found out I burst out from the bedroom I was not able to persuade some that I was not Corellius: now for still I was stubborn. I summoned doctors and saind offering different foods: “I have decided’: because the words afterwords, either sad and miraculor seemed to me, when I had understood how big the friends how much the man had suffered.

Chris Weimer
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Re: [Urgent] - I do not understand this passage at all....

Post by Chris Weimer »

What do you not understand? The translation has errors in it, do you want those corrected?

awlright
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Re: [Urgent] - I do not understand this passage at all....

Post by awlright »

Yes please...... but generally near the latter stages, the plot suddenly diverges and i am completely unable to follow...

adrianus
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Re: [Urgent] - I do not understand this passage at all....

Post by adrianus »

Salve awlright
See this English translation of the latin source (Pliny the Younger's letters, book 1.12), even though it's not exactly the same as your Latin newer version. Perhaps it will help you when you are translating afresh.
Certè, tua verè eadem versio non est; vide interim anglicè versionem ê fonte latino apud Plinium Secundum (primo in epistulae libro duodecimo capite). Fortassè ea te denuò vertentem adjuvabit. http://ancienthistory.about.com/library ... _intro.htm @ http://ancienthistory.about.com/library ... s1.htm#XII

The original/Ecce fons
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/pliny.ep1.html wrote:6 Iam enim dolor non pedibus solis ut prius insidebat, sed omnia membra pervagabatur. Veni ad eum Domitiani temporibus in suburbano iacentem. 7 Servi e cubiculo recesserunt — habebat hoc moris, quotiens intrasset fidelior amicus -; quin etiam uxor quamquam omnis secreti capacissima digrediebatur. 8 Circumtulit oculos et 'Cur' inquit 'me putas hos tantos dolores tam diu sustinere? — ut scilicet isti latroni vel uno die supersim.' Dedisses huic animo par corpus, fecisset quod optabat. Adfuit tamen deus voto, cuius ille compos ut iam securus liberque moriturus, multa illa vitae sed minora retinacula abrupit. 9 Increverat valetudo, quam temperantia mitigare temptavit; perseverantem constantia fugit. Iam dies alter tertius quartus: abstinebat cibo. Misit ad me uxor eius Hispulla communem amicum C. Geminium cum tristissimo nuntio, destinasse Corellium mori nec aut suis aut filiae precibus inflecti; solum superesse me, a quo revocari posset ad vitam. 10 Cucurri. Perveneram in proximum, cum mihi ab eadem Hispulla Iulius Atticus nuntiat nihil iam ne me quidem impetraturum: tam obstinate magis ac magis induruisse. Dixerat sane medico admoventi cibum: 'Kekrika', quae vox quantum admirationis in animo meo tantum desiderii reliquit. 11 Cogito quo amico, quo viro caream.
Vide etiam/See also Hoffer, The Anxieties of PLiny, the Younger, pp.152,153 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gSkZ ... #PPA152,M1
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.

adrianus
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Re: [Urgent] - I do not understand this passage at all....

Post by adrianus »

Nota benè, tua versio alia quàm pristina est
Precibus eius a deo auditis, paucis post diebus imperator Domitianus a liberto suo necatus est.
"the emperor Domitian was killed by his freedman" is great, of course (traductionem non violentiam esse dicere volo!).
Plinius Secundus wrote:Dedisses huic animo par corpus, fecisset quod optabat. Adfuit tamen deus voto, cuius ille compos ut iam securus liberque moriturus, multa illa vitae sed minora retinacula abrupit.
Other translator wrote:Could you but have given him a frame fit to support his resolution, he would have achieved the object of his desire. However, some god heard his prayer and granted it, and then feeling that he could die without anxiety and as a free man ought, he snapped the bonds that bound him to life. Though they were many, he preferred death.
Sic ego verto:
Were you to have put his mind into another's body [if one were to assign a counterpart body to the mind of this man], he would have done what he was wishing for. God however helped his prayer ['adsum' cum dativo], who [Corellius], gratified, broke those many little [last] ties to life, so that shortly thereafter he would die a safe and free man.
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.

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