I recently moved and my new library has a selection of books with both the latin and english (hooray, not bad for a dinky little branch library) So now I am reading Horace. It gets very frustrating working for days on the same page so I have found these little poems to be much more ‘translator friendly’. The English translation is very free, so I am finding there is still a bit of work in understanding it in Latin, but as always, I am stuck with problems, so…
Montium custos numorumque, Virgo,
quae laborantis utero puellas
ter vocata audis adimisque leto,
diva triformis,
imminens villae tua pinus esto,
quam per exactos ego laetus annos
verris obliquum meditantis ictum
sanguine donem.
The first part seems pretty easy
Hail Virgin, protectress of the mountains and groves,
you hear the girls call three times while laboring with childbirth, and you take them away from death,
Goddess of three forms,
here is where I get stuck, what is esto, a form of edo ? I am assuming imminens is the perfect active part. of immineo, which has many meanings, ‘near to’ seems to be the best fit
_goddess of three forms, nearing my country home I …(_something about your pine tree) and then something to the effect of through the ‘precise’ (from exacto, but that word doesn’t seem to fit) years I make an offering of blood from a sideways wound from a practising (based on the english version, meditantis seems to loosely mean youthful, still learning) boar.
so where does laetus fit in? and where is the verb, donem is in ACC form, I just made the assumption the the offering was being made
Montium custos nemorumque, Virgo,
quae laborantis utero puellas
ter vocata audis adimisque leto,
diva triformis,
Slavishly literally (note that I have corrected the first line to read nemorumque):
Guardian of the mountains and groves, Virgin, you who, thrice called (i.e., presumably three-named – Diana, Luna, Hecate, cf. Cat. 34), hear the girls laboring in the womb and snatch [them] away from death, three-formed goddess,
imminens villae tua pinus esto,
quam per exactos ego laetus annos
verris obliquum meditantis ictum
sanguine donem.
Let the pine tree overhanging my villa be yours, which I, happy (i.e., happily), through the completed years (i.e., each year) will gift with the blood of a boar practicing [its] sideways slash (i.e., presumably a young boar).
esto is the third-person imperative of sum. imminens is the present active participle of immineo (which I assume is what you meant). exactos is from exago; it is the perfect passive participle. meditor means “practice.” laetus modifies ego; it is nominative singular but more easily rendered in English as an adverb (this is commonly how Latin does things). donem is the verb, from dono, donare. It is first-person singular present active subjunctive. I suppose it is the apodosis to an implied future less vivid condition: if you should make this tree yours, I would give it …
I hope that this helps you.
Guardian of the mountains and groves, Virgin, you who, thrice called (i.e., presumably three-named – Diana, Luna, Hecate, cf. Cat. 34), hear the girls laboring in the womb and snatch [them] away from death, three-formed goddess,
With due respect, I don’t think “in the womb” is quite right. The goddess hears the girls laboring due to childbirth. Utero is an ablative of cause that answers why they are laboring. Or so I think.
donem is the verb, from dono, donare. It is first-person singular present active subjunctive. I suppose it is the apodosis to an implied future less vivid condition: if you should make this tree yours, I would give it …
I saw the relative cause beginning with quam and ending with donem as being a relative cause of purpose
The pine towering over my villa shall be thine that I might through the passing years joyfully sacrifice to it with the blood of a boar [still] rehearsing his sidelong thrusts.
Of course I cheated. Behold a nice a Horace site I found while researching this lovely ode
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/horaces-villa/poetry/Ode3.22.html
Guardian of the mountains and groves, Virgin, you who, thrice called (i.e., presumably three-named – Diana, Luna, Hecate, cf. Cat. 34), hear the girls laboring in the womb and snatch [them] away from death, three-formed goddess,
With due respect, I don’t think “in the womb” is quite right. The goddess hears the girls laboring due to childbirth. Utero is an ablative of cause that answers why they are laboring. Or so I think.
Six of one, half a dozen of another. I didn’t mean that the women were in the womb, I meant that they were laboring in their own wombs – i.e., yes, that they are laboring due to childbirth.
As to why donem is subjunctive, I think our two interpretations again amount to the same thing. It’s a do ut des-style prayer: you do this for me, I’ll do this for you.
Yes didymus I take your points. And I hope everything is relatively clear to the person who originally posted about the passagel. Best.
thanks, I think i have it now
friends
I decided to share the horatian verses to diana with a skype friend in lima and ended up translating them into spanish for her.. although perhaps not rendered completely accurately, I was not unpleased with my effort
O de tres nombres virgen (luna, hecate, diana),
de bosques y montes guardiana, acudes,
y los llantos de jovencitas oyendo,
los dolores del vientre les quites
SeraA TUYO sobre la villa eminente EL PINO ..
que sacrifique (Yo) a este por los anos transcuriendo
la sangre de un cerdito
ya ensayando los empujes oblicuos primeros.
best to all …ken