# On understanding and enjoying



## Casquilho

May you help me to translate to Latin this phrase, "On understanding and enjoying"? I think it would be _De _[...], it's the verbal form that I can't translate.


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## Cagey

We need more context, of course.  
What is this for?


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## Casquilho

It is the title of an essay.


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## Scholiast

> It is the title of an essay.



But we still need to know whether the "understanding and enjoying" are transitive or intransitive. I mean, is it "On understanding and enjoying [music/sport/philosophy/books &c.], or is it in the abstract, like the Latin titles of some of Aristotle's works, "On Being and Becoming"? To put it another way, could it in English be re-written as "On Understanding and Enjoyment" - with general reference to the intellect and pleasure? Or is it "How to understand and enjoy music/sport &c.?


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## Casquilho

Oh, now I see. Pardonnez moi.
I think it is in the abstract, and "enjoyment" indeed is better than "enjoying". I'm going to put that title above an excerpt from Montaigne, where he says that without vigor and intelligence one cannot feel happiness neither even volptuousness. Unfortunately I'm not with the original right now, but I think this point to your example from Aristotle.


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## Scholiast

salve iterum!

Montaigne. I see. Then I can suggest:

_de intellectu delectationibusque_


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## Casquilho

I'm ok with that, but, just for curiosity, could the _de _be followed by a verb in a ablative function, like, _delectando_​, or is it agrammatical?


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## Scholiast

salvete!

Casquilho asks 





> could the _de _be followed by a verb in a ablative function, like, _delectando_​, or is it agrammatical?



Grammatically, this is of course possible: _de natando_, "on swimming". The specific problem with _delectare_/_delectandum_ is that it is a transitive verb, and requires an object, which cannot be expressed in Latin with the gerund-form (though of course it can with the gerund_*ive*_). _de delectando_ would mean "on [the art of] pleasing", and with a transitive verb such as _delectare_ one would usually therefore expect not a gerund, but a gerund_*ive*_: _de hospitibus delectandis_, "on how to please one's guests".


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## Casquilho

I guess I still have many things to learn about Latin. Thank you.


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