Ablative Absolute
The ablative absolute is a special construction that uses a participle and a noun, pronoun, or substantive adjective both in the ablative case to indicate the circumstances (e.g., time, condition, or reason) under which the action of the main verb is happening. The construction is so called because neither the participle nor its noun, pronoun, or substantive adjective depend grammatically or syntactically on any part of the main sentence: the construction is absolutus, “disconnected” (literally, “freed from”), from the main part of the sentence.
Note this distinction: if you want to use a participle to modify a subject, direct object, indirect object, etc., you simply use the participle in the appropriate gender, case, and number to modify the noun in question. The ablative absolute is used when you want to describe a circumstance that involves an entity that does not belong directly to the core of the sentence. That means that you can remove the ablative absolute from the sentence without affecting the meaning or grammatical coherence of the sentence.
The ablative absolute is most often used with the present active or perfect passive participle. The literal translation of the former is “with the (noun) (verb)ing”; the literal translation of the latter is “with the (noun) having been (verb)ed” (though as with regular participial constructions, the literal translation should almost never be the final step).
- mīlite flūmen aspiciente* hostēs castra cēpērunt. With the soldier watching the river, the enemies seized the camp.
- eī epistulam mittēmus verbīs eius lectīs. We will send him a letter with his words having been read.
* Remember that the ablative singular of the present active participle will end in -e as opposed to the expected -ī when the participle takes an object or prepositional phrase or is used, as here, in an ablative absolute.
Translating the Ablative Absolute
As with the translations of straightforward participles, however, such literal translations of the ablative absolute are stilted almost to the point of incomprehensibility, so we should feel empowered to be more creative with our translations.
Take a look at this Latin example and its literal translation:
- rēgīna victīs hostibus ab aciē mīlitēs suōs dūxit.
- The queen led her soldiers away from the battle line with the enemies having been conquered.
Because the ablative absolute indicates the circumstances under which the action of the main verb occurs, we can translate the ablative absolute as a dependent clause introduced by an appropriate subordinating conjunction like “because,” “since,” “although,” “when,” “while” (only with present participles), or “after” (only with perfect participles). Note all the different ways in which we can translate the examples above.
- rēgīna victīs hostibus ab aciē mīlitēs suōs dūxit.
- The queen led her soldiers away from the battle line when the enemies had been conquered.
- The queen led her soldiers away from the battle line after the enemies had been conquered.
- The queen led her soldiers away from the battle line because the enemies had been conquered.
- The queen led her soldiers away from the battle line since the enemies had been conquered.
Ablative absolute with a present participle:
- mīlite flūmen aspiciente hostēs castra cēpērunt.
- While the soldier was watching the river, the enemies seized the camp.
- Because the soldier was watching the river, the enemies seized the camp.
Ablative absolute with a perfect participle:
- eī epistulam mittēmus verbīs eius lectīs.
- We will send him a letter after his words are read.
- We will send him a letter after we read his words.*
* Note that I use the context of the sentence to infer that “we” is the agent of the verbal action in lectīs (there is no, e.g., ablative of agent within this particular ablative absolute), and I flip the voice of the passive lectīs into an active translation. These modifications help create a smoother and more idiomatic, if not exactly literal, translation that still gets the same idea across. Smooth and idiomatic is preferable to literal as long as the correct idea and relationship of time is being conveyed.
You can and should use the context of the sentence to render a translation that is smooth and idiomatic. Try to steer clear of the literal translations of ablative absolutes whenever possible, or at least use a literal translation only as a starting point before you work it into a more idiomatic version.
A Note about sum
Note that the verb sum, esse, fuī, futūrus, “to be”, has only one participle: the future active futūrus (as we can see from the -ūrus ending). Because it does not have a present active participle or a perfect passive participle, when we construct an ablative absolute that needs a form of “to be”, we have to supply the verb in our minds and construct the ablative absolute with only the ablative noun/pronoun/substantive adjective and its subject complement / predicate “nominative” in the ablative case:
- matre laetā familia ad mare ibit. Because the mother is happy, the family will go to the sea.
- duce eō urbs incolumis erat. While he was leader, the city was safe.