cadit hamatis misere confixa sagittis

[itaque]

I am trying to literally translate these lines from Ovid's Tristia 3.10:

pars cadit hamatis misere confixa sagittis:
nam volucri ferro tinctile virus inest.
quae nequeunt secum ferre aut abducere, perdunt

My literal translation is as follows:

some fall, having been pierced by barbed arrows:
for a smeared poison is on the flying iron [i.e., on the arrows].
[Those] whom they cannot carry or lead away, they kill

I'd like to know if my translation is, on the whole, accurate. But I know that it is defective in at least one respect: I have not translated misere, for I cannot figure out what this word ('to pity'?) is doing here.

 

[Bestiola]

Misere is an adverb here - "miserably, wretchedly". "Some fall miserably..."

Perdunt here is in the sense of losing - "what (things) they can't carry with them or take away, (they) lose..."

 

[Pacifica]

(things)

Indeed, things and not people. "Those whom" would have been masculine, not neuter.

 

[itaque]

Misere is an adverb here - "miserably, wretchedly". "Some fall miserably..."

Thank you. Misere as an adverb does not occur here; is that an omission on Wiktionary's part?

 

[Bestiola]

Thank you. Misere as an adverb does not occur here; is that an omission on Wiktionary's part?

Wiktionary sometimes has mistakes, or is lacking information, yes. But it usually refers to perseus (that is Lewis&Short dictionary), which is a more reliable source.

Check Lewis&Short on misere: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=misere

 

[Bestiola]

On Archimedes project you have even more dictionaries to choose from:

Archimedes Project Direct Dictionary Access

And there is this one: https://www.online-latin-dictionary.com/latin-english-dictionary.php?parola=misere