_The Form of the Passage: Elegiac Verse._--Scan[9] as you read, and mark the quantity in the verse of all finals in +-a+. You will see the value of this, as you translate.
[Footnote 9: See Introduction, pp. 6, 7, § 10.] [[Introduction 10. Help through Scansion and Metre]]
You can now begin to translate, taking one complete sentence at a time.
+I.+ +Quod mare non nōvit, quae nescit Ărīŏnă tellūs?+
(i.) _Vocabulary._--You will know all the words here, but observe +nōvit+ = _knows_, not _knew_, for +nōvi+ means _I have become acquainted with, I have learned_, and ∴ _I know_; and notice also the important cognates from the √γνο-, γνω-, +-gna+, +-gno+, γι-γνώ-σκω = _I learn to know_, cf. our _know_, _ken_, _can_, _con_--νό-ος (_mind_), +-gna-rus+ = _know-ing_; +no-sco+ (= +gno-sco+).
(ii.) _Translation._--This sentence contains no subordinates; the two finite verbs, +nōvit+, +nescit+, are both principal.
Next, the form of the sentence, with the question-mark at the end, shows that +mare+ must be the subject of +nōvit+, and +tellus+ of +nescit+. (+Ărīŏnă+ cannot be nominative, for the suffix +-a+ is the usual Greek 3rd decl. Acc. Sing., where Latin has +-em+.) Also +quod+ and +quae+ are clearly interrogative and adjectival; so translate:--
_What sea does not know, what land is ignorant of Arion?_
N.B.--Try to render this line a little more poetically.
+II.+ +Carmine currentes ille tenēbat aquās.+
(i.) _Vocabulary._--You will know all these simple words.
(ii.) _Translation._--Here again there are no subordinates. The principal verb is +tenebat+, the subject +ille+, and the object +aquas+; so translate:--
_He used to stay the running waters by his song._
N.B.--Notice force of Imperfect in +tenebat+.
+III.+ +Saepe, sequens agnam, lupus est a voce retentus;+
(i.) _Vocabulary._--All you need notice here is the force of +re-+ in +retentus+ = _held back_, cf. our _re_-tain.
(ii.) _Translation._--Before you translate, notice Ovid’s frequent use of _parataxis_, _i.e._ placing one thought side by side with another thought, _without any connective_, even although one thought is, in sense, clearly subordinate to another. This is one of the ways in which all great poets _heighten the effect_ of what they say, and many examples of it are to be found in Ovid’s best elegiac verse. As you look through this passage you will find: