Si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruinae

Me Mea Mei

New Member

Hi all,

I got trouble with translating the quote"Si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruinae" from Horace.

This is my first try:

Si(if) fractus(perfect passive participle of "frango(break)", in the singular nominative masculine case) illabatur(third-person singular subjunctive active of "illabor(fall)") orbis(singular nominative of "orbis(the ring; the Earth)"), impavidum(singular masculine acc./neuter nomi or acc. of "impavidus(fearless)") ferient(future active 3rd. sigular of "ferio(strike)") ruinae(singular dat. or gen./plural nom. or voc. of "ruina(ruins)").

So my translation is:
If the world falls (I do not understand how the "fractus" functions in the sentence), the ruin strikes the fearless.

Your comments will be appreciated, thanks.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
If the world, broken, should fall/if the world should break and fall, the ruins will strike [him] fearless.

When you see the sentence alone, you can't know whether it's about "me" or "you" or "him", but I've looked at the context.
 

Me Mea Mei

New Member

If the world, broken, should fall/if the world should break and fall, the ruins will strike [him] fearless.

When you see the sentence alone, you can't know whether it's about "me" or "you" or "him", but I've looked at the context.

So the "fractus" is modifying “orbis”, and "impavidum" is the usage of substantive adjective?
 
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