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{ 2009 02 11 }

What eye can't stand…

Cicero, Ad Atticum 10.8:

Pati poterunt oculi me cum Gabinio sententiam dicere, et quidem illum rogari prius?

Will my eyes be able to stand the sight of myself giving my opinion alongside Gabinius—or even his being asked it first?

It looks clumsy, probably for the ‘eyes standing the sight of,’ which is probably a bit redundant, though the more literal ‘will my eyes be able to stand giving my opinion…’ wouldn’t be able to stand by itself in English.  “Will I be able to stand the sight of…” would probably be more idiomatic, but it wouldn’t be the same idiom.

[For rogo.]

Posted by Muke on Wednesday, February 11, 2009, at 8:18 pm. Filed under Latin. Tagged , , , . Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. You can post a comment or trackback from your blog.

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