Ep. 4.18.1Quemadmodum magis approbāre tibi possum, quantō opere mīrer epigrammata tua Graeca, quam quod quaedam Latīnē aemulārī et exprimere temptāvī?How can I better prove to you how much I admire your Greek epigrams than by the fact that I have tried to rival and render some of them in Latin? Ep. 4.18.1in dēterius tamen.but for the worse. Ep. 4.18.1Accidit hoc prīmum imbēcillitāte ingeniī meī, deinde inopiā ac potius, ut Lucrētius ait, egestāte patriī sermōnis.This comes about first from the weakness of my talent, and then from the poverty, or rather, as Lucretius says, the penury of our native tongue. Ep. 4.18.2Quodsī haec, quae sunt et Latīna et mea, habēre tibi aliquid venustātis vidēbuntur, quantum putās īnesse iīs grātiae, quae et ā tē et Graecē prōferuntur!But if these, which are both Latin and mine, seem to you to have some charm, how much grace do you think there is in those which are put forth both by you and in Greek! Ep. 4.18.2Valē.Farewell.
Lectitō › Pliny the Younger › Letters, Book 4 › Pliny, Letter 4.18
Pliny · Epistulae IV
Pliny, Letter 4.18
Greek epigrams rendered in Latin
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Read in LectitōGrammar in this passage: indirect statement ×2
Latin vocabulary for this passage (52 words)
| quemadmodum (adv.) | how, in what way; just as |
| magis, comp. adv. | more, rather |
| approbō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus | approve, agree with |
| tū, tuī, pers. pron. | thou, you |
| possum, posse, potuī | be able, have power, can |
| quantus, -a, -um | how great or much? |
| opus, operis, n. | work, task |
| mīror, -ārī, -ātus | wonder, wonder at |
| epigramma, -atis n. | an epigram, a short poem |
| tuus, -a, -um | thy, thine, your |
| quam, adv. | how? as; than; with superl., as ... as possible |
| quod, conj. | that, in that, because |
| quīdam, quaedam, quoddam, indef. pron. | a certain, certain |
| Latīnē (adv.) | in Latin |
| aemulor, -ārī, -ātus sum | try to equal, rival, imitate |
| et, conj. | and; et ... et, both ... and |
| exprimō, -primere, -pressī, -pressus | press out |
| temptō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus | try, attempt |
| in, prep. with acc. and abl. | with acc.: into, onto, against; with abl.: in, on |
| dēterior, -ius | worse, poorer |
| tamen, adv. | however, yet, nevertheless |
| accidō, -cidere, -cidī | fall to or upon; befall, happen |
| hic, haec, hoc, dem. pron. | this; ille ... hīc, that ... this, the former ... the latter |
| prīmum, adv. | first, in the first place |
| imbēcillitās, -ātis f. | weakness, feebleness |
| ingenium, -ī n. | natural ability, talent, cleverness; character |
| meus, -a, -um | my, mine |
| deinde, adv. | then, next |
| inopia, -ae f. | lack, want, scarcity |
| atque, ac (conj.) | and; after comparisons: as, than (ac only before consonants) |
| potius (adv.) | rather |
| ut, conj. | as; when; that; ita ut, as |
| āiō (defective) | say, affirm; ut aiunt: as they say |
| egestās, -ātis f. | want, poverty |
| patrius, -a, -um | of one's fathers, ancestral |
| sermō, -ōnis, m. | conversation, talk, speech |
| quodsī (conj.) | but if, and if |
| quī, quae, quod, rel. pron. | who, which |
| sum, esse, fuī, futūrus | be |
| Latīnus, -a, -um | Latin |
| habeō, -ēre, -uī, -itus | have, hold; consider |
| aliquis, -quid, indef. pron. | someone, any one, something, anything, some, any |
| venustās, -ātis f. | charm, grace, beauty |
| videō, vidēre, vīdī, vīsus | see; pass., seem |
| putō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus | think |
| īnsum, inesse, īnfuī | be in, be present in (dat.) |
| is, ea, id, dem. pron. | this, that; he, she, it, they |
| grātia, -ae, f. | favor; gratitude, thanks; plur., thanks; grātiās agere, to give thanks, thank; grātiam referre, to return a favor, show gratitude, requite |
| ā, ab (prep. + abl.) | away from, from; by (ā only before consonants) |
| Graecē (adv.) | in Greek |
| prōferō, -ferre, -tulī, -lātus | bring forward, bring out |
| valeō, -ēre, -uī, -itūrus | be strong or effectual, have effect, prevail |
Pliny, Epistulae IV. Latin text: the Perseus digital text of Pliny's Letters, public domain; digital text from the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA. Word analysis: drafted by our own tagger (trained on the hand-checked texts on this site), with every doubtful word checked by hand. English translation and section titles: written for this app, each checked against the Latin by a second reader.