Nunc Athenis sum, quo confugi ut mihi paucas horas ad quietem darem.
I’m guessing mihi is part of the idiom. My guess is that it all means to rest. Which seems kind of odd? All that just to say to rest. All that being mihi ad quietem dare. So would this be a correct translation of the whole sentence:
Now, I am at Athens, where I took refuge to rest for a few hours.
A few hours for rest.
What would be a literal translation of the idiom? To give myself to rest? Is that correct?
I don’t think there’s anything really idiomatic here, Properti. What’s tripping you up is the preposition ad. It has an host of meanings, one of which, when used to express the end result of an action, is “for”. So your phrase translates quite neatly as
“to give myself a few hours for rest”, as Bedwere indicates.
How about, to allow myself a few hours rest. Or to indulge in a few hours rest?
English, as Latin, can be concise, or it can use a longer phrase. It’s rare for any language to force the speaker to be one or the other. To offer to one self, as in to treat one self, is an idiom in French I discovered reading a book about Churchill who treated himself often.
In other words, just because Latin is known for conciseness doesn’t mean it always is.
How about, to allow myself a few hours rest. Or to indulge in a few hours rest?
English, as Latin, can be concise, or it can use a longer phrase. It’s rare for any language to force the speaker to be one or the other. To offer to one self, as in to treat one self, is an idiom in French I discovered reading a book about Churchill who treated himself often.
In other words, just because Latin is known for conciseness doesn’t mean it always is.