Can anyone provide a translation to the Latin and French phrases Poe uses in Berenice? I've always felt like I'm missing something important as pertains to Egaeus' mental state, such as "que tous ses pas etaient des sentiments," and of Berenice I more seriously believed "que toutes ses dents etaient des idees"'. Another phrase is '"Dicebant mihi sodales si sepulchrum amicae visitarem, curas meas aliquantulum fore levatas."

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2003

Answers

I have not the text under my eyes, however,

"que tous ses pas etaient des sentiments"=that all his/her steps were feelings.

"que toutes ses dents etaient des idees"=that all her teeths were ideas.

Hope it helps.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2003

The texts at www.eapoe.org has annotated translations for Berenice. The Latin is somethinbg about the curative consolation to be found in visiting your loved one's tomb. In this case it brackets the whole story with cruel irony in that in a trance he visits her tomb to remove the teeth of his obsession- while she was not yet dead.

Yet another Poe hero who cared more about his obsessive experience than the person.

-- Anonymous, February 27, 2003