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11:48 Mar 5, 2007 |
English to Latin translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature | ||||
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| Selected response from: Joseph Brazauskas United States Local time: 03:16 | |||
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5 +2 | Indagator, veni ad me esque oculi mei cum videre non possum |
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seeker, come to me, and be my eyes when i cannot see. Indagator, veni ad me esque oculi mei cum videre non possum Explanation: 'Indagator' means 'one who tracks down' (as a hunter does). It is the single Latin word which is closest in meaning to 'seeker'. But a phrase such as 'o tu qui quaeris' ('o you who seek') would sound more natural. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 10 hrs (2007-03-05 22:27:14 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- One might, rather than say 'es oculi mei', 'be my eyes', which is present imperative, the normal way of expressing a command in colloquial Latin of the classical period, adopt Olga's suggestion and say instead 'sis oculi mei', '(may you) be my eyes'. As she points out, this would be an instance of the so-called 'subiunctivus hortativus', which is one example of a type of independent verbal constructions known as 'optative subjunctives' that express a wish. When employed in the third person present tense, singular or plural, and in the first person plural, it is the normal way of expressing a command in these persons, standing in for the corresponding forms of the imperative which are wanting in Latin. The hortatory subjunctive is likewise, when preceded by the negative particle 'ne', regularly used in the perfect tense in all persons and numbers to express a negative command. In the second person, however, the hortatory subjunctive is mostly confined to the singular, and its subject, excepting only in the comic dramatists, such as Plautus, Terence, and Caecilius Statius, most of whom antedate the classical period, is always indefinite and imaginary, much like the English use of the indefinite4 pronoun 'one' with the third person present indicative, by which corresponding grammatical construction it is often conveniently rendered. For the hortatory subjunctive, cf., e.g., Gildersleeve & Lodge, 'Latin Grammar', p. 173; C. E. Bennet, 'Latin Grammar', p. 177. 'Sis oculi mei' is, therefore, a viable alternative translation if you want to stress that the seeker whom you are addressing is not a specific individual known to you, while 'es oculi mei' ought to be employed when the person addressed is definitely known to your acquaintance, as indeed must be the case here, since 'indagator' is unquestionably vocative. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 10 hrs (2007-03-05 22:35:54 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- The enclitic '-que', meaning 'and', expresses a closer logical and grammatical linkage between the action and state expressed by 'veni' and 'es' (or 'sis') respectively than would 'et', which also means 'and', but does not emphasise either clause, while 'atque' ('and, and also') would stress the clause or clauses which followed it. |
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