# Ne dicas non



## Casquilho

Please verify my translation and complete the [?] below:

Do not say no, cruel girl!
Do not say yes! I will better understand
Your great eyes gazing me, 
And your pink lips, o my beauty!

_Ne dicas non, crudelis puella!
Ne dicas [?]! Melior intellegam
Oculos grandes tuos contemplando me, 
Et labia tua rosea, o pulchra mea!

_Am I right using _melior_ as adverb?


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## Scholiast

Oh how this yearns to be put into Catullan hendecasyllables!

But to your specific question: the adverbial form is _mel*ius*_.

ἀγαθῇ τυχῇ.


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## Casquilho

Thank you.
But, I also need to translate "yes" in the text above.
And I must confess I can't read the Greek line. What does it mean?


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## Scholiast

It means:

"With the best of luck"


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## lacrimae

I propose "ne adnuas "  for ...say yes
I propose "contemplantes " coordinated to "oculos"

 (do veniam Scholiasti ut meos errores monstret, de suis sileo )


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## Casquilho

lacrimae said:


> I propose "ne adnuas "  for ...say yes
> I propose "contemplantes " coordinated to "oculos"
> 
> (do veniam Scholiasti ut meos errores monstret, de suis sileo )



But I would to preserve the repetition of "Do not say" (_Ne dis pas non... ne dis pas oui..._)

Would it be too much strange if I render it,

_Ne dicas non... ne dicas "adnuo"...? 

_(or, perhaps, _ne dicas "aio"_?)


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## Scholiast

Salvete omnes

Quod scripsit Casquilho:

_Ne dicas non, crudelis puella!
Ne dicas [?]! Melior intellegam
Oculos grandes tuos contemplando me, 
Et labia tua rosea, o pulchra mea!_

This is tricky.

In itself, _adnuere_ is OK for the context. But then you lose the parallelism you are seeking with "ne dis-pas 'non', ne dis-pas 'oui'". 

In ll. 1-2 you could use "ne dicas nolis.../ne dicas velis", with the advantage that the verbs have the same root, but with some liberties take as strict grammar would prefer "ne dicas te nolle /...velle".

_contemplantes_ makes perfect sense in agreement with oculos, but is metrically clumsy. _intuentes_ suggests itself.

In l. 4, _labia_ should be plural, _labiae_ (_tuae roseae_), or else use (as I suggested elsewhere) the diminutive _labella_.

Was there anything else?


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## Casquilho

Fine, Scholiast; but



Scholiast said:


> _contemplantes_ makes perfect sense in agreement with oculos, but is metrically clumsy. _intuentes_ suggests itself.



Shall I write then _intuentes mihi_? I mean, I think it would be ambiguous if I write only the participle _intuentes_; is she looking at me, or at something else?


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## lacrimae

According to me Casquilho uses "labia" case  pluriel accusative  of "labium,-i " direct object  of" Intellegam", like "oculos ".It is not case nominative either singulier or pluriel (labiae of labia,-ae ). Whose subject ?
Salutem habeatis


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## Scholiast

lacrimae, salvete

recte dicis. et _labia_ (necnon _labea_), primae declensionis, generis feminini et _labium_ (alterius decl., neutri, apud e.g. Plinium) inveniuntur. _labrum_ etiam (Terentius, Cicero etiam, Petronius et al., et contextu rhetorico Quintilianus, quod linguam viva voce expressam pertinet).

Quod tamen rogas: "It is not case nominative either singulier or pluriel (labiae of labia,-ae ). Whose subject ?"

piget me sententiam istam nondum recte intellexisse. fortasse "What is the subject?" volebas rogare? subiectum intus habet iam verbum _intellegam_.


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## lacrimae

Scholiast said:


> lacrimae, salvete
> 
> recte dicis. et _labia_ (necnon _labea_), primae declensionis, generis feminini et _labium_ (alterius decl., neutri, apud e.g. Plinium) inveniuntur. _labrum_ etiam (Terentius, Cicero etiam, Petronius et al., et contextu rhetorico Quintilianus, quod linguam viva voce expressam pertinet).
> 
> Quod tamen rogas: "It is not case nominative either singulier or pluriel (labiae of labia,-ae ). Whose subject ?"
> 
> piget me sententiam istam nondum recte intellexisse. fortasse "What is the subject?" volebas rogare? subiectum intus habet iam verbum _intellegam_.


 Quod putabas "labia tua rosea " posse esse nominativum "labiae tuae rosae", eo rogavi quid  esset eius verbum.
Volebam dicere Of what verb would be it t the subject ?sed...
S. h.


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## Scholiast

salvete, lacrimae

confiteri oportet me, quaestionem istam non recte intellexisse ("Volebam dicere Of what verb would be it t the subject ?sed...")

forsitan alioquomodo rescibere poteris, vel alia quaque lingua?


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## Casquilho

_Ne dicas te nolle, crudelis puella!
Ne dicas te velle! Melius intellegam 
Grandes oculos tuos me intuendo, 
Et tua labella rosea, o pulchra mea!_

Is this good? Maybe _labellaque tua rosea_ sounds better?


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## lacrimae

I like nolle and velle.I think "te" is not necessary.


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