Translation of an original Latin text into Polish
What the exam tests
You must turn a continuous Latin passage into natural, accurate Polish while keeping the Latin's syntax visible in your choices. Marks are lost for omission, false agreement, wrong voice, and invented content.
Method and rules
- Read the whole sentence before writing. Locate the main verb; if it is subjunctive, find the governing clause.
- Parse endings, not word order. Latin's flexible order carries emphasis; Polish should sound natural but preserve contrast and focus.
- Render participles as relative or temporal clauses when Polish demands it: qui... = 'który...', a present participle = 'robiąc' only if it is truly simultaneous.
- Ablative absolute becomes 'gdy/ponieważ/choć + clause', not 'z + instrumental'.
- Indirect statement (accusative + infinitive) becomes 'że + clause'; reported command (ut/ne) becomes 'aby/żeby'.
- Keep names in standard Polish forms: Carthago → Kartagina, Athenae → Ateny, Caesar → Cezar; decline them normally.
- Passive periphrastic (gerundive + esse) means 'must/ought to be done', not a simple future.
Worked example
Cum Caesar in Galliam venisset, Helvetii, qui per provinciam iter facere conabantur, a Romanis prohibiti sunt.
- cum + pluperfect subjunctive venisset = temporal 'when Caesar had come'.
- qui... conabantur is a relative clause: 'who were trying'.
- prohibiti sunt is perfect passive: 'were prevented'. Polish: 'Gdy Cezar przybył do Galii, Helweci, którzy usiłowali przedostać się przez prowincję, zostali powstrzymani przez Rzymian.'
Traps
- Translating a passive as active because Polish word order feels freer.
- Missing ne and reversing a prohibition.
- Rendering se as 'jego' when it refers to the subject.
- Leaving a participle dangling or translating it with the wrong subject.