Can you speak/translate Latin?

.ak

Hey hey,

I'm trying to translate a bit of latin for a project I'm working on and whilst there's a great many on-line Latin Translators, I simply don't trust them.

Also, there's the aspect of grammar. Whilst I'm sure I have the wording right, I could be WAAY of on the grammar.

Here's what I want translated:

Born to Fly High untill Death

or

Born to Fly untill Death

_________

So far all I've managed to translate is this:

Natum Volo Altus ad Mortem

I'm really not sure how close or far I am with this. I also found this in a poem by Dante in the 13th century

o gente umana, per volar sù nata

Which translates to:

O race of man, born to fly on high

But I don't think this is correct latin as it is poetic.

I'd obvious appreciate some help here, even if a push in the right direction!

Regards,
-A

Kwekubo

*greases the rarely used Latin cogs*

I would translate the phrase as:

Nata/natus ut alte volet usque ad mortem

The initial word has to change spelling depending on whether the person is male or female, you had left it as the neuter.

I can't remember off the top of my head whether it is safe to translate an English phrase like "born to fly", "ready to go", "happy to sing" etc (ie adjective + infinitive) directly into Latin. So I rephrased the sentence as:

"Born so that he/she might fly highly until death"

The word "ut" (meaning "so that") must be followed by a subjunctive, which is why "volet" is spelt the way it is. Remember, UT + SUBJUNCTIVE. Volet is in the third person singular, as it must agree with the subject of the sentence (natus/nata)

"High" in this sentence is an adverb, not an adjective, so the correct word is "alte".

The phrase "usque ad" means "right up to", and must be followed by the accusative case. Your translation, "ad mortem", is probably fine though.

Keep it up!

.ak

Cheers man, really appreciate this! And the explination on grammar really helps too! I was totally lost.

Thanks man.

-A

.ak

Kwekubo wrote: »

*greases the rarely used Latin cogs*

I would translate the phrase as:

Nata/natus ut alte volet usque ad mortem

The initial word has to change spelling depending on whether the person is male or female, you had left it as the neuter.

So is nata male? Or natus? Also, could I not leave it as a neutural natum so it could refer to as a general? You see the phrase is for an emblem. Think a phrase for a military outfit, i.e: marines (semper fi) etc., etc. It should refer to any one individual.

Also trying to keep it short n sweet.


Again, appreciate any help on the matter.

-A

Kwekubo

No problem, I'm quite pleased I remember this much!

Nata is feminine and natus is masculine. Leaving it in neuter wouldn't be great, it's used for inanimate objects or things like ideas that don't have a gender. If it's a military unit then you should use the masculine plural. (You use masculine when a group is all male or a mix of male and female, and feminine when it's all female - the Romans weren't exactly PC!)

For example, the full version of the marines motto "semper fi" is actually "semper fideles", where fideles is masculine plural. So the right word would be nati.

How about:

Nati ut volaremus (alte) (usque) ad mortem

"Volaremus" changes its spelling to match with "nati". Plus, after flicking through a couple of websites, I've changed it to the imperfect subjunctive to make the meaning a little clearer.

You have the option of leaving "usque" out, but it changes the meaning to be more like "flying towards death" instead of "flying right up until death". You could leave "alte" out too.

.ak

Cheers man. Appreciate it!
This is actually for a tattoo i'm getting done. So hence the reason I'm trying to get as much research done as possible. I'll show you the end result when I get it done!


-Adam

Kwekubo

Woah.. ok, if it's for a tattoo, please get a second opinion from someone on another site! I think I've got it right, but better safe than sorry if it's something permanent :eek: