Latin to english translation

Here you can discuss all things Latin. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Latin, and more.
Post Reply
ldvdellavecchia
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2016 5:41 pm

Latin to english translation

Post by ldvdellavecchia »

The sentence I need help translating into English is:
Ubi nox venit et Polyphemus dormivit, Ulixes et viri ei nocebant

I believe the sentence translates into something similar to:
When the night comes and Polyphemus sleeps, Ulixes will hurt her husband

mwh
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 4816
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:34 am

Re: Latin to english translation

Post by mwh »

When night came and P. went to sleep, Ulysses(Odysseus) and his men proceeded to do him harm.
(They stuck a heated pointed stake into his one eye and blinded him. The tale is in Homer’s Odyssey.)

Can you see how you went wrong? You need to learn some Latin before you can get it right. Looking up the words is not enough.

Aristofan
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2016 1:50 pm

Re: Latin to english translation

Post by Aristofan »

To be even more specific, hoping it helps:
here's where you should look into: "et viri ei nocebant"

ThatLanguageGuy
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 60
Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2016 7:21 am

Re: Latin to english translation

Post by ThatLanguageGuy »

You said "to do him harm." Wouldn't this say, "we're doing him harm?" Because it is imperfect tense. This isn't a correction, just a question.

Timothée
Textkit Enthusiast
Posts: 564
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 4:34 pm

Re: Latin to english translation

Post by Timothée »

Language Guy, you should read more carefully what mwh wrote. The imperfect in the original sentence could probably be labelled (if we want to label things) as an inceptive imperfect (action as begun, AG §471c).

Post Reply