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Its all Greek to me: Help with translation (Greek)
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Theodore Felix View Drop Down
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Posts: 769 		  Quote Theodore Felix Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Its all Greek to me: Help with translation (Greek)
    Posted: 05-May-2008 at 03:43
Can someone give me a proper translation of this:

hopoia d'en haute he paideusis dunatai tis gignwskein dialogon tina tou Platwnos skopwn,


I got the jist of it but I can seem to construct a proper translation. So far I have this mess:

And of what sort was this education that makes someone able to learn, by examining, a dialogue of Plato...

Whats tripping me up is hopoia(of what sort). haute paideusis(this education) is in the nominative so maybe it should go right in the beginning, but then I dont know how to work around dunatai(able, can) and en(was), both of which are in the 3rd person

Edited by Theodore Felix - 05-May-2008 at 04:25
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Posts: 1800 		  Quote Byzantine Emperor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05-May-2008 at 04:10
Originally posted by Theodore Felix

hopoia d'en haute he paideusis dunatai tis gignwskein dialogon tina tou Platwnos skopwn,
 
I am guessing that this is a question and the tis is an indefinite pronoun.  Also, the haute is a reflexive pronoum with some kind of interrogative quality modifying he paideusis.  Is the en the 3rd person singular imperfect form of eimi?
 
Perhaps it can be rendered as the following:
 
"What sort of education was this that someone who is examining is able to learn a certain Dialogue of Plato?"
 
The tina is kind of strange and I took it as modifying dialogon.  The skopwn I am assuming goes with tis.


Edited by Byzantine Emperor - 05-May-2008 at 04:13
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Theodore Felix View Drop Down
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Posts: 769 		  Quote Theodore Felix Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05-May-2008 at 04:15
Is the en the 3rd person singular imperfect form of eimi?


Yes.

The tina is kind of strange and I took it as modifying dialogon.


Definitely. I took it is "a dialogue".

Ah... I didnt think that it could be an indirect statement... and I assumed haute modified paideusis (this education)...

damn you Plato..

Edited by Theodore Felix - 05-May-2008 at 04:16
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Posts: 769 		  Quote Theodore Felix Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05-May-2008 at 04:28
This is what I did so far. My prof. want us to leave it as a literal translation for now and we then work on a more proper translation in class.

And of what sort was this education that makes someone able to learn, by examining, a dialogue of Plato...

The gloss in the book leaves hopia as "of what sort", I kind of want to find a way to stick around that for now.

Edited by Theodore Felix - 05-May-2008 at 04:29
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