Salvete,
Could someone tell me what “immemores” modifies in this sentence?
Immemores multa in villa relinquent, ubi ad urbem redibunt.
This is my translation (I don’t think it is correct):
They will leave behind many forgetful things in the country house, when they will return to the city
At first I thought it “immemores” modified “they”, but i wasn’t sure how to translate that.
Thanks,
Deccius
Could someone tell me what “immemores” modifies in this sentence?
Immemores multa in villa relinquent, ubi ad urbem redibunt.
Your intuition that “immemores” modifies “they” is correct. As you know, case endings allow a greater flexibility of use for adjectives than in English. In this sentence, I believe that “immemores” is used as a substantive adjective. You’ve probably encountered this concept before, but it essentially refers to an adjective functioning as a noun. So I would translate it as follows:
“The forgetful will leave behind many things in the country home, when they return to the city” (In English, the temporal clause is put into present tense even though it refers to a future event.)
There are other valid ways to translate the sentence, I’d guess:
“Forgetful, they will leave behind many things…”
Or even “Since they are forgetful, they will leave behind many things…”
Cheers,
David