Hi!
Would someone be able to tell me what the following phrase would be once translated into Latin:
" Do not let her drown."
It is part of a university saying and we wanted to try and translate it for part of an ongoing friend’s birthday present project!
I would be really grateful for any help as its years since i studied Latin at school,
Thanks, Alex
How about:
Eam non amitte obruere.
I’ll say… ea ne bibat aquas
lit. “let her not drink the waters (i.e. ‘drown’)”
I could see this working, but wouldn’t it make more sense to use a passive infinitive (obrui)? This ‘infinitive of purpose’ is very rare in classical Latin however. Negative imperatives generally use noli + infinitive. If I interpret this correctly, you are saying “do not lose her to be ruined”.
I was also given the suggestion:
“Ne demersa sit” for “do not let her drown”…
Would this also work?
alex
That is a good translation. I would put in the present tense though… ea ne demergatur. The person who gave you that phrase put it into the perfect (past) tense, which is usually used for a different sort of command, though still correct.
you really don’t need the pronoun at all, classical authors would tortue you if you did. (not just your normal rolling in the grave!)
Unless you use the perfect participle it is impossible to show that the subject is feminine otherwise, though on second thought I would rather use illa than ea.