Quenya 

man cenuva métim’ andúnë?

Who shall see the last evening?

The thirty-eighth and final line of the Markirya poem (MC/222). The first word is man “who” followed by the future tense of the verb cen- “to see”. The object of the phrase is andúnë “evening”, preceded by the adjective métima, which is elided because of the initial a in the noun it modifies.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> man cen-uva métim’ andúnë = “✱who see-(future) last evening”

Conceptual Development: In the first draft, Tolkien used a different form of the noun “evening”: andúnie (MC/222).

Changes

  • Man kenuva métim’ andúnie?Man kenuva métim’ andúne? “Who shall see the last evening?” ✧ MC/222

Element in

Elements

WordGloss
man“who, who; [ᴹQ.] what”
cen-“to see, behold, look, to see, behold, look, *perceive”
métima“last, ultimate, final”
andúnë“sunset, evening, (orig.) going down; west”

Variations

  • Man kenuva métim’ andúne? ✧ MC/222
  • Man kenuva métim’ andúnie? ✧ MC/222