Translation of a Latin prose or verse text into Basque or Spanish
What the translation task demands
Domain 1 tests your ability to turn a Latin prose or verse passage into accurate, idiomatic Basque or Spanish. In the Basque PAU Latin II paper the translation usually carries the largest single weighting, and candidates choose between a prose option (often Caesar, Cicero, Sallust or Livy) and a verse option (often Virgil, Ovid or Horace). The passage comes with a short glossary, but the glossary does not replace grammar: you must identify the main clause, the verb, the case functions and the connectives before you write a target-language sentence. A good target sentence reads naturally in Basque or Spanish; examiners penalise both Latinisms that obscure the sense and free paraphrases that drop information.
Core rules
- Find the main verb first. In Latin prose it often stands at the end of its clause; in verse word order is freer.
- Build the sentence around the nominative subject, the accusative object and any dative or ablative complements.
- Keep Latin tense and aspect: imperfect for ongoing background, perfect for completed events, pluperfect for prior action.
- Translate constructions, not words: ablative absolute, accusative-and-infinitive indirect statement, participial phrases, gerund/gerundive, purpose and result clauses.
- In verse, follow the sense across the line break; do not reproduce Latin word order.
- Keep proper names in their standard target form and respect the glossary notes.
Worked example
Latin: Caesar, cum id nuntiatum esset, maturat ab urbe proficisci. Step 1: main verb maturat, present indicative, 'he hurries'. Step 2: subject Caesar. Step 3: cum id nuntiatum esset is a cum clause with subjunctive (pluperfect passive), 'when this had been reported'. Step 4: ab urbe proficisci, 'to set out from the city'. Target: 'When this had been reported, Caesar hurried to set out from the city' (Spanish: 'Cuando se anunció esto, César se apresuró a partir de la ciudad').
Traps
- Translating cum as 'with' when it introduces a clause.
- Leaving an ablative absolute literal ('the city having been captured').
- Missing deponent verbs (proficiscor, sequor, conor) and giving them passive force.
- Confusing ut purpose ('so that') with ut result ('so that... actually happened').
- Ignoring the glossary and guessing a rare word.
- Writing a target sentence that is grammatically correct but omits a Latin clause.