An incident at the market …
Senex quīnque pullōs
gallumque ūnum in sportā portat.
Senex: Quis pullōs emere
vult?
Ēmptor: Pullōsne dīcis? Ubi
sunt? Ō nōs miserōs! Taurum cavē! Ut terribilis est aspectū!
Agricola: Nōlī timēre,
domine! Taurus nōn tē cornū petet.
Senex: Hī sunt
pullī, domine, sed quō aufugit ille ēmptor, quī pullōs emere
vult? Cavē! Cavē! Taurus mēcastor iterum hūc ruit! Tot rēs
molestās numquam anteā ūnō diē percēpī!
____________________
Vocabulary
aufugiō, aufugere [3-iō]:
run away
percipiō, -ere [3-iō]:
perceive; observe; notice; (here) ‘see’ would work
petō, petere [3]: (here)
attack
ruō, ruere [3]: rush
tot: so many
Notes:
[1] In this text and in the
previous post from Initium, Appleton and Jones are setting the
‘targets’ i.e. the basics, the conjugations and, here, the five noun
declensions.
sporta, -ae [1/f]: basket;
hamper
dominus, -ī [2/m]: master
gallus, -ī [2/m]: rooster
pullus, -ī [2/m]: chicken
taurus, -ī [2/m]: bull
ēmptor, emptōris [3/m]:
purchaser; buyer
senex, senis [3/m or f]: old
man / woman
aspectus, -ūs [4/m]:
appearance
cornū [4/n]: horn
diēs, -ēī [5m/f]: day
rēs, -eī [5/f]: matter;
thing
[2] I chose this excerpt
partly to show these:
1. Ut terribilis est aspectū!
│ How terrible he looks = how terrible he is in appearance
2. Tot rēs molestās numquam
anteā ūnō diē percēpī! │ I have never before seen so many
annoying things in one day.
3. Taurus nōn tē cornū petet.
│ The bull will not attack you with its horn.
4. And from the post before
this: Quid enim arbore pulchrius esse potest? │For what can be more
beautiful than a tree?
All three use the ablative
case and you can see that it has many different functions. I have uploaded a
file that summarises them. What’s useful about that file from latinlibrary.com
is that it gives one example of each. For me, that was the
best way of learning them, and I didn’t learn them all at once.
[3] Quis pullōs emere vult?
│ Who wants to buy chickens? The irregular verb: vōlō, velle: want.
[4] If the Romans were
surprised or annoyed by something, they had various ways of expressing it:
mēcastor!; ēcastor!
[literally: by Castor!]; ēdepol! [literally: by Pollux!]: my goodness! oh my!
Heavens above!
‘mecastor pulcher est’
(Plautus) │ By my troth, but he is a handsome man. [Well, that translation was
written in 1895!]
[5] From this text and from
a previous one: if you’re feeling sorry for yourself …
Ō mē miserum! [male
speaking]; Ō mē miseram! [female speaking] │Oh, poor me!
And if there’s more than one
person feeling sorry for themselves …
Ō nōs miserōs! │ Oh poor us!
____________________
An old man is carrying five chickens and one rooster in a basket.
Old Man: Who wants to buy chickens?
Buyer: Chickens, you say? Where are they? Oh, poor us! Look out for the
bull! How terrible it looks!
Farmer: Don’t be afraid, master (sir)! The bull won’t attack you with
its horn.
Old Man: These are the chickens, master, but where’s that customer
running away to, who wants to buy the chickens? Be careful! Watch out! My
goodness, the bull is rushing again (to) here. I have never before seen so many
annoying things in one day.
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