Faustus- That sight will be as pleasing unto as paradise was to Adam, the first day of his creation.
Here’s my translation:
Faustus- Ille visus mihi erit tam gratus quam paradiso erat Adae, primus dies creationis sui.
Apparently that’s how you write Adam in the dative. That’s what wiktionary says at least. I’m a little lost with:
as pleasing… as paradise
For, tam… quam translates as so… as. That’s the best I could go with. Is that part correct?
And also the first day of his creation. I’m not sure if I’m using the correct possessive pronoun. Is it sui or eius. On second thought, I think I am using the correct possessive pronoun, for is it not referring to Adam’s own creation. Could someone confirm me in this though?
Doctor Faustus is fantastic, I remember reading it with great pleasure a few years ago!
Here are two things to consider:
The word “paradisus” should be in the same case as “visus”.
-The English “the first day of his creation” really means something like “on the day he was first created” and should be translated accordingly. This should also solve the trouble with the possessive pronoun.
About paradise (the word in the line, that is), I assumed it was a third declension feminine noun that ended in -o, so I wrote it thus without even looking it up. I looked it up last night and was going to edit this, but it was too late. So the correct translation would be:
Ille visus mihi erit tam gratus quam paradisus erat Adae, primo die creationis sui.
Is that correct? And you didn’t mention anything about my use of tam… quam. I’m assuming I got that correct then?