a question from XXXII Lingua Latina

Latin Learning Latin
1

I have a problem with this sentence and I’d appreciate some help here:

ll.154

Sed nescio cur hoc vobis narraverim, nec enim sine maximo dolore eius temporis reminiscor cum in patria liber inter cives liberos versarer.

Seems to to mean:

I don’t know why I told you this, nor indeed why without maximum pain of that time I remember when I was free living among free men.

But something bothers me. ‘nec’ is making me insert ‘nor’ and then ‘why’ (is it because of ‘cur’?), but then I am not sure if that works as intended.

2

Salve,

I think if you understand nec more as “and…not” rather than “nor” in this context, you’ll get your translation where you want it to be.

“I do not know why I told you all this, and indeed not without the greatest pain do I remember that time…”

Also, another point, keep in mind that reminīscor will frequently take the genitive case for the thing that is being remembered/recalled. In this case, that thing is eius temporis.

3

I see your point, but now I think I’d give ‘enim’ a more proactive role and keep ‘nec’ just as negation to get, what seems to me, a more natural translation:

“I do not know why I told you all this, because not without the greatest pain do I remember that time…”