Se quel guerrier io fossi

Conditionals and volitions: A griceian outlook

(Sorry I have been late in replying things and things -- I've been very busy -- with opera! Sort of ... --) Anyway, I am reading the libretto of "Aida" and this is wiki on it:

"Radames dreams both of gaining victory on the battle field and of Aida, the Ethiopian slave, with whom he is secretly in love (Radames: Se quel guerrier io fossi!...Celeste Aida - "Heavenly Aïda")".

---

Now, that sentence,

Se quel guerrier io fossi.

Translates as

If that warrior I were.

or in more idiomatic English

Were I that warrior!

----- Nonsense!

Consider the logical form:

if p, q

p ) q

-- where ) is the horseshoe.

Possibilities. When you find a protasis (or antecedent) without apodosis (or consequent), assume the apodosis, "I would be the happiest (UTTERER --male, woman, etc) in the world".

Why?

Conditionals and volition.


Radames says,

"If I were that warrior!"

----- This is the opening of the opera. But from the context, it is obvious that he WOULD enjoy being the warrior.

Surely, there is some AMBIGUITY. As things happen, just because he WILL eventually BE that warrior, he will be buried alive. So there is some sort of tragic irony involved.

Anyway.

Later!