AUDIOBOOK: D'Ooge's 'Colloquia Latina'

[metrodorus]

D'Ooge's 'Colloquia Latina' is now available at http://latinum.org.uk for download or streaming in Latin audio.

[WillowW]

Gratias plurimas tibi, Metrodore!

Illis colloquis amoenis coepi, linguam Latinam renovare, antequam Latinum tuum inveni. Multa sunt valde iucunda et memoralia: umbraculum oblitum! Hercules et Charon! filius asellorum! altercatio Britanni et Americani! Quam saepe risi et subrisi.

Sed colloquia etiam sollerter constructa sunt, et studentes auxilio illorum permultum discere possunt. Illa sincere et ex animo commendo.

D'Ooge colloquia sua in 1888 scripsit, si bene memini, et ego descriptionibus de modo vivere et diplomatia europeana illae aetatis (ante istud bellum bellorum) capta est. Vita tam eadem est, sed tam multa nos de illis hominibus distant.

Illa colloquia etiam successu utor, nonnullos discipulos de classe septem docere, qui Latine duos annos studuerunt sed tamen vix sententiam Latinam legere aut dicere possunt. Talibus discipulis colloquia pergrata fuerunt, quare etiam et mihi magistrae fortuitae; illis Latine vero didicerunt.

Laborem pergratum acceptumve, Metrodore, nonnullis discípulis etsi mutis agis,

Usque ad proximum, Salix

[Timothée]

Nice to have you on Textkit, Salix! Nett Sie ein bisschen kennenzulernen und Ihre interessante Geschichten zu lesen!

A few suggestions (I could be wrong or may well misunderstand something):

Cum illis colloquis amoenis coepi, linguam Latinam renovare, antequam Latinum tuum invenisti.

This would appear to be cum historicum, which takes conjunctive. Also, cum + antequam seems to be an anacoluthon.

et studens auxilio illorum permultum discere possunt

D'Ooge colloquia sua in 1888 scripsit

anno millesimo octingentesimo octogesimo octavo

si bene memini

There’s a nice turn of phrase nisi memoria me fallit, though there are other possibilities, too.

et ego de descriptionibus de vita et diplomatia illae aetatis (ante istud bellum bellorum) capta est.

Also, ego could be superfluous, depending on how much you want to stress it, of course.

et ego de descriptionibus de vita et diplomatia illae aetatis (ante istud bellum bellorum) capta est.

Better ablative without prepositions with capi. Descriptio de vita is better simply vita (Biografie, Lebensbeschreibung). Diplomatia possibly diplomatica, and here descriptio could take it in genitive: descriptiones diplomaticae, and then of course descriptiones in ablative. Other expressions and constructions could work as well as this if not better.

[WillowW]

Thank you for your kind suggestions to improve my Latin, which I've been hoping for. My Latin is still pretty lame, but if I'm going to host weekly conversations in Latin, I'd better improve quickly. For the sake of my better education, I'll briefly break my own rule of writing only in Latin.

Studens...possunt. Yeah, oops. I changed my mind while I was writing and didn't proofread afterwards. Mea culpa. Ditto with de descriptionibus. I'm afraid you'll have to bear with my mistakes and Anglicisms until my Latin improves. De was meant in the sense of de bello gallico.

Ego was indeed meant emphatically, in the sense of "I at least (or I for one) was captivated by the descriptions of life (i.d. how people lived) and (European) diplomacy of that age (even if others might not be)." How best to translate "how people lived"?

The cum at the beginning was not meant as a conjunction, but rather as a preposition: "I began to renew my Latin with those (illustrious) dialogues, before I found your Latinum." I'm sure there's a better way to say it in Latin.

Nunc in palatium venustum linguae Latinae redibo, ut plura corrigenda dicam. Gratias maximas tibi, Timothee!

Tua Salix

[Timothée]

How best to translate "how people lived"?

Possibly something like quomodo viverent veteres vel sim. (there could well be something more idiomatic). Veteres means the ancients, as you probably knew anyway.

The cum at the beginning was not meant as a conjunction, but rather as a preposition: "I began to renew my Latin with those (illustrious) dialogues, before I found your Latinum." I'm sure there's a better way to say it in Latin.

Did you notice the wrong person in “I found”? These mistakes happen so so easily, and they mustn’t be allowed to discourage one, as often Latin isn’t that actively used. But you’re going to make it more active to yourself, which is great.

Maybe a simple ablativus instrumenti might do then for “with those dialogues”? That’s possibly why I mistook cum for the conjunction cum historicum.

[WillowW]

*cringe*

Quam erratum pudendum! <-- Salix gemens

Soleo me pudere, mea verba etsi mendosa mutare, sed istud emendere coacta sum.

Tamen gratias maximas tibi de auxilio et hortatu benigno tuo; permultum acceptum gratumve est!

Tua Salix

[Timothée]

Noch eine kleine Sache: die enklitische Partikel -ve bezeichnet ,oder‘, weshalb sie eventuell hier nicht ganz richtig ist:

permultum acceptum gratumve est!

Laborem pergratum acceptumve, Metrodore

Sie suchen ohne Zweifel nach dem enklitischen Wort -que ,und‘.

[WillowW]

Haec menda tantum postea in mentem venit (gemens). Latruncula nequam sum, quia illa verba (et alia) de Catullo amato eripui:

Si quicquam mutis gratum acceptumve sepulcris
accidere a nostro, Calve, dolore potest...

Illa poema ut adolescens edidici et perpetuo adorabam, cum quibusdam aliis carminibus eius. Nunc autem ubi obsolesco, significationum verborum repetitorum oblivisci coepi. Ai, aestus advenit et castellum harenaceum paulatim dissolvit.

Oportet ergo mihi vero renovare et devote discere! Ut neque latruncula nequam neque linguae Latinae latrancula sim. De emendationibus emendicatis et consiliis tuis benignis gratias numerosas tibi iterum iterumque,

Tua emendabilis et posthac emendata Salix