The key says :
Even old men often lack fruits of wisdom, plans and certain proofs.
Which sounds right to me. However, when I was doing this, I came up with this translation:
The old men, even with fruits of wisdom, plans and proofs, often lack certainty.
Is my translation plausible? Or there is some fault in it that I have not seen?
Thank you very much.
Remember that “certus” is normally an adjective. If you decide to take it substantively, you have to decide whether that extension of meaning is justified. I can’t say whether it would be incorrect for the author to have used it this way here, but it feels awkward to me. I would expect something like “n?n cert? sciunt” if that was the sense intended here.
Likewise, the sense of “with fruits of wisdom…” I would expect to be expressed in Latin as “fructūs sapentiae habentēs” (direct object of a participle) or “quibus fructūs sapentiae sunt” (relative clause, dative of possession). I can’t think of a type of dative or ablative which would have this sense. Ablative of accompaniment uses “cum”, and I think is only used for people. An ablative of description would make sense only if it were “sapenti?” but not “fructibus”, since “fructibus” can’t describe the quality of the old men.