Today’s page has three sentences. The first contains two parts, the main clause Miranda sibi dicit Miranda says to herself and the Direct Statement nunc intellego now I understand.
‘Now I understand,’ Miranda says to herself.
The second and third sentences are also Direct Statements that Miranda says to herself. The bare bones of the second are femina me effugit the woman escaped me. Miranda describes femina with the Demonstrative Adjective illa that. femina is also described by the Present Active Participle ascendens climbing. Here the Present Active Participle, however, has a meaning more akin to by climbing. ascendens has an Object canalem pipe, which Miranda describes with the Demonstrative Adjective hunc this.
‘That woman escaped me by climbing this pipe.
The bare bones of the third sentence are me oportet cloacam scrutari it behoves me to examine the drain. oportet it behoves is often followed by an Infinitive Verb, as with scutari to examine, here. scrutor scrutari is a Deponent Verb, meaning that even though it looks Passive it is Active. The Prepositional Phrase sub canale under the pipe tells us where the drain is located. The Adverb ergo therefore joins the sentence with what has come before.
It behoves me therefore to examine the drain under the pipe.’