# vir leonis corium vestiat, femina ovis vellus



## Casquilho

[_utinam_]_ vir leonis corium vestiat, femina ovis vellus_.

"Let man wear the fell of the lion, woman the fleece of the sheep." (Blake)

Another experience with subjunctive. Is my translation correct?


----------



## jazyk

Looks good to me.


----------



## XiaoRoel

uir leonis pellem, femina ouis uellus/lanam uestiat. 
No latim o zeugma verbal numa estrutura bimembre afecta o primeiro membro, e assim o verbo deve ir no segundo membro (em português, pela contra, no primeiro). _Pellis_ (pelejo ou pelica) com o verbo _uestio_ é melhor que _corium_. A lã, _lana_ melhor também com _uestio_ que _uellus_.


----------



## Scholiast

salvete!



> [_utinam_]_ vir leonis corium vestiat, femina ovis vellus_.



In a sentence such as this, the subjunctive is entirely appropriate and right.

The chief problem, however, is that _vestire_ is a *transitive* verb, meaning "to clothe", and I am unaware of any classical uses meaning "to don" or "to dress in".

A straightforward and simple solution would be to turn the whole sentence passive:
_
vir leonis corio vestiatur, femina ovis lana_.

But also, like Xiao, I would prefer _pellis_ to _corium_ for the hide or skin of the lion. _corium_ is really "leather" or "hide" - calf-skin or goatskin, usually.


----------



## XiaoRoel

*Totalmente de acuerdo con Scholiast*. Ayer tuve un _lapsus_ (era ya muy tarde en España, las cinco de la madrugada), es decir *me confundí*.
Aquí se debe usar la _pasiva_ con un sentido medio (que en español se traduce por una forma pronominal), _quien se viste_, el sujeto, va en nominativo, _con lo que se viste_ en ablativo, tal como S_choliast_ dijo. Sólo le pongo un pero a su versión: _uestiatur_ debe ir al final de la segunda parte del periodo bimembre.
Mis disculpas.


----------



## Casquilho

Well, I really appreciate your help, fellows. Indeed, I already replaced _pellem_ for _corium; _I was thinking on the fell Hercules wore, and William Blake probably was thinkin on it too.

I'm doubtful about _lana_ vs _vellus_. "Fleece" in Pt translates "velo" or "velocino", a word with, for me at least, suggests poetry, the Golden Fleece, Jason and classical culture; while "wool" translates "lã", and my translator of Blake indeed says,

"Que o homem use a pele do leão; a mulher, a *lã* da ovelha."

But I'm rather inclined to _vellus_; it sounds more poetic.

But, the passive alternative came too late... I've already made it the epigraph of my text in the first form. Anyway, I'll write down the commentary in my notebook, for future research. Thank you!


----------

