Monday, May 6, 2024

01.05.24: review: imperfect tense [5]; Julia: a Latin reader (excerpts) [4]

Tandem in caelō columbās albās vidēbant. Columbae per caelum [undique] volābant et folia ad locum herbōsum portābant. Parentēs ad locum contendērunt* et ecce! īnfāns in herbā placidus impavidusque dormītābat; columbae in terrā, in arboribus [passim] sedēbant; columbae per caelum volābant, et parvulī corpus foliīs tegēbant. … Post multōs annōs Horātius, iam adolēscēns, Rōmam, magnam urbem, incolēbat. Sed dīvīna rūra et vītam rūsticam semper laudābat.

At last they saw white doves in the sky. The doves were flying [in all directions] through the sky and (were) carrying leaves to a grassy place. The parents hurried* to the place and lo! The child was sleeping, peaceful and undaunted, on the grass; doves sat [here and there / everywhere] on the ground, in the trees; doves flew through the sky, and covered the body of the child with leaves… After many years Horatius, already a young man, inhabited Rome, a great city. But he always praised the divine countryside and the rustic life.

[* perfect tense: to be discussed soon after the review topics are finished, but you can see the difference: they rushed to the place i.e. they did it once and it was finished: not imperfect tense.]

Again, there are some similar uses to the ones in the previous post:

Tandem in caelō columbās albās vidēbant. │ At last they saw [could see] white doves in the sky. They “were seeing” them for a length of time.

Columbae per caelum [undique] volābant. │ The doves were flying [in all directions]; an action in progress and also a sense of randomness i.e. undique (in all directions)

Folia ad locum herbōsum portābant. │They were carrying leaves to a grassy place / a place full of grass; an action in progress

Īnfāns in herbā placidus impavidusque dormītābat. │ The child was sleeping, peaceful and undaunted, on the grass; an action in progress; impavidus (fearless; undaunted) and so the child wasn’t concerned; the child kept on sleeping would work nicely here.

Columbae in terrā, in arboribus [passim] sedēbant. │ Doves were sitting [here and there] on the ground, in the trees; again, an action in progress and, again, the use of passim (here and there; everywhere)

… et parvulī corpus foliīs tegēbant. │ …and were covering [kept covering] the child’s body with leaves; an action in progress and the idea that they kept on doing it would also work.

Post multōs annōs Horātius … Rōmam, magnam urbem, incolēbat. │ After many years Horatius … inhabited [lived in] Rome, a great city. The verb describes a general situation that happened over a period of time with no sense of end.

Sed … vītam rūsticam semper laudābat. │ But he always praised / used to praise … rural life; this was something that he was in the habit of doing 




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