Elegant variation in the RDCG
- 291
- 311--312
- 375
- 692-694
- 719

Elegant variation in the RDCG

RDCG is characterized by elegant variation: even when the translation keeps close to the original, Marulić avoids repeating the same Latin words. Let us illustrate the point with transformations of a recurrent notice “and then the king died”. A single Croatian verb, “umrijeti” (“to die”), is translated by the following: uita defungi; defungi; mori; diem claudere extremum; mortem obire; uita decedere, etc.

291

CC Mejutim umri kralj Bladin
- In the meantime died king Bladin
RDCG Interea Bladino rege uita defuncto

311--312

CC I umri Ratimir
- And died Ratimir
RDCG Etenim haud ita multo post moritur Ratimirus

375

CC I ta umri kralj Satamir
- And then died king Satamir
RDCG Cum ergo defuncto rege Satimero¹⁾

692-694

CC I potom blaženi kralj kraljeva lit četrdeset i miseci tri s voljom <onogaj> ki sve može.
- And thereafter the blessed king ruled years forty and months three by the will of the one who everything can.
RDCG Rex autem ipse Budimerus anno a sua unctione quadragesimo, mense III.

CC I imi u starost svoju sina.
- And had in old age of his a son
RDCG — — —

CC I sedminade<se>te dan umri na devet miseca marča
- And on the seventeenth day he died on the ninth of the month of March
RDCG diem clausit extremum

719

CC I potom ispustiv <dušu> umri kralj.
- And thereafter having released the soul died the king
RDCG Cumque in omnibus sese summa cum laude gessisset mortemque obiisset

¹⁾ Note also a different sentence opening: Croatian “and” is rendered in 311–312 by “etenim”; here it is subordinated, as an ablative absolute, to a temporal “cum ergo”.