Latin Translations |
Latin Grammar Guide |
Blog |
Games |
Welcome! This website will be where I put mainly translations of ancient texts, with some other bits and bobs as well. My aim with this website is to provide people like myself, trying to learn ancient languages, with resources to help them on their journey. I will be adding constantly, with updates on the blog when I add a big chunk, or finish a section of something.
All of my translations follow the same format. The original text appears as this text is. The English translation is in red italics, like so:
in nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas
(Ovid, Metamorphoses, I.1)
Any bits that I have added to make the translation clearer or better English, but aren't actually present in the original are in square brackets [] as above.
Especially in verse, it is sometimes not possible to keep words to the line they're supposed to be in, and in these cases, I use curly brackets {} to show where a word is in the text- I haven't added it myself- but comes from a different line:
"festinate viri! nam quae tam sera moratur
segnites? alii rapiunt incensa feruntque
(Virgil, Aeneid, II.373-4)
In this example, the "segnites" (tardiness) is in the text, but it comes in the line after the rest of its sentence. In this case, it's not really possible to make English word order work, and keep everything on the line it's supposed to be on, so the curly brackets show where the word has been moved from and to (note also the square-bracketed "you", which I have added).
In my translations, my aim is always to help the reader to understand the original text, not to produce a nice translation. I therefore sometimes twist English word order to its breaking point, or write things that don't sound as nice as they could, because I am trying to match the original as much as possible. I might make some translations designed to be read purely as translations, but my aim for now is, as I said, to make the original texts more approachable, and help people to read them.