Sol oriens per fenestram in cubiculum lucet.

Oriens is the present participle of orior, meaning rising.

So sol oriens means the rising sun or the sun, rising.

Latin often uses a participle where English might use:

• an adjective: the rising sun
• or a clause: the sun which is rising

If you used oritur, you would have two finite verbs:

• Sol oritur et lucet = The sun rises and shines
• Sol oriens ... lucet = The rising sun ... shines

So oriens is describing sol, not serving as the main verb.

Because sol is the subject of lucet.

The verb lucet means shines or gives light, and the thing doing that action is the sun. In Latin, the subject of a sentence is normally in the nominative case.

So:

• sol = nominative singular, sun
• lucet = shines

Yes. Oriens agrees with sol in case, number, and gender.

Here:

• sol = nominative singular masculine
• oriens = nominative singular, agreeing with it

That agreement shows that oriens describes sol.

A useful extra point: oriens is a third-declension participle, and its nominative singular form is the same for masculine, feminine, and neuter. The agreement becomes clearer in other cases:

• nominative: oriens
• genitive: orientis
• accusative: orientem, etc.

Because it follows per, and per takes the accusative.

So:

• per fenestram = through the window

This is a very common rule:

• per
  • accusative = through, by means of, along

So fenestra becomes fenestram after per.

Because in can take either the accusative or the ablative, depending on the meaning.

• in + accusative = motion into
• in + ablative = location in / inside

Here the idea is light shining into the bedroom, so Latin uses:

• in cubiculum = into the bedroom

If the meaning were in the bedroom as a location, it would be:

• in cubiculo

Because they express two different ideas:

• per fenestram = the route or passage: through the window
• in cubiculum = the destination: into the bedroom

So the sentence shows both:

1. where the light passes through
2. where it goes into

That is very natural Latin.

Because Classical Latin has no articles.

So:

• sol can mean sun, the sun, or sometimes a sun, depending on context
• fenestram can mean a window or the window
• cubiculum can mean a bedroom or the bedroom

English requires articles much more often than Latin does, so when reading Latin, you usually supply a/an/the from context.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the case endings show how words function.

This sentence has:

• Sol oriens at the start
• the prepositional phrases in the middle
• lucet at the end

That is a very normal Latin arrangement.

But other orders are possible, for example:

• Per fenestram in cubiculum sol oriens lucet
• Sol per fenestram in cubiculum oriens lucet would be much less natural, because oriens wants to stay close to sol

So the exact order can change, but some placements feel more natural than others. In this sentence, the order is smooth and clear.

Because its subject, sol, is singular.

Latin verbs agree with their subject in person and number:

• sol = singular
• lucet = third person singular, he/she/it shines

If the subject were plural, the verb would also be plural:

• soles lucent = the suns shine

Lucet comes from luceo, which means to shine, to give light, or to be bright.

In this sentence, it suggests that the sun’s light is shining through the window into the room. Depending on context, English might translate it in several ways:

• shines
• is shining
• casts light

Latin often leaves this a little broader than English.

Yes. In this sentence it already comes after sol: sol oriens.

That is a very natural position, because oriens directly describes sol. Keeping them together makes the sentence easier to understand.

Latin can separate related words for style, but for a learner, it is helpful to notice that:

• sol oriens works like a noun + modifier pair
• the participle usually stays fairly close to the noun it describes unless there is a stylistic reason to separate them

It is a participle, so it has features of both.

Like an adjective, it:

• agrees with sol
• describes the noun

Like a verb, it:

• comes from the verb orior
• carries verbal meaning: rising

That is exactly what participles do in Latin: they combine verbal meaning with adjectival grammar.

Because there is no need for one.

The main verb is lucet = shines / is shining. Latin does not need an extra is there.

Also, oriens does not need a form of to be in this sentence, because it is simply attached to sol as a participle:

• sol oriens = the rising sun

Latin often expresses ideas more compactly than English in this way.