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| Author | Message | | | Posted on Thu May 20, 2010 07:41:05 | |
| | I have chosen to analyze the poem 101 (Multa per gentes et multa per aequora...). Could you please help me with the third verse ?
"Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis" > "te" and "munere" are ablatifs sg, so how would you traduce it?
Everybody traduces this verse as so : "To bring you the present of death". But munere is not accusatif, and "te" is not datif... is this an exception?
Thank you very much,
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Julien
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| | | Posted at Wed Oct 27, 2010 09:01:32 | Quote |
| | | Quote: | | | | | I have chosen to analyze the poem 101 (Multa per gentes et multa per aequora...). Could you please help me with the third verse ?
"Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis" > "te" and "munere" are ablatifs sg, so how would you traduce it?
Everybody traduces this verse as so : "To bring you the present of death". But munere is not accusatif, and "te" is not datif... is this an exception?
Thank you very much,
--
Julien
|
Good question. Note that the verb 'dono, donare' can also mean 'to bestow'. A more literal translation of this verse would be: "so that I may bestow you with the last gift of death". In the Latin syntax, the 'te' is, indeed, in the accusative case, and is the direct object of 'donarem', and 'munere postremo' is in the ablative case and is an ablative of means. But this meaning is rendered more easily in English with the less awkward construction: "to give you the last present of death". That is why most translations choose that path. | |
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