h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

ok all I know is

'odi et amo quare id faciam fortasse requiris nescio sed fieri sentio et excrucior'

which means 'i love and i hate why do i do this perhaps you ask but i feel it is right and it hurts'

does anyone know any more latin? perhaps we could have convos in latin here

cogito ergo doleo=I think therefore I am depressed/sad.
Rho knows some latin, I told him about the thread. He wrote the useful latin phrases thingy on here, I think.
Like I said before the Latin I know is of little use except for in medicine and other romance langs.
But I love to try! So let's just teach each other stuff!

I can read a bit of Latin... can't speak any though... and I can write very little...

Joe C

Joe feel free to note down any latin here if you wish

I could "read" you 'Germanicus et Piso' by Tacitus; its about 900-1000 words and i have a translation.

Sounds good. I have Carmina Burana (some in latin some v old German) with translation I sould "sing" for everyone. You go Joe.

This is from the Cambridge Latin Course; it starts with an English introduction:

Nero Claudius Germanicus Caesar, born in 15BC, was a favourite of the Emperor Augustus, who saw him as a possible heir, if anything happened to his own adopted son and favoured heir, Tiberius. Augustus therefore forced Tiberius to adopt Germanicus. Germanicus commanded the Roman forces on the northern frontier and was popular with the legions and people. According to Tacitus, Tiberius, on becoming emperor, quickly came to hate him and recalled him to Rome. Being unable to dispose of him openly, Tiberius sent him to the East as commander-in-chief of the Roman army there, to settle various problems on the borders of the Roman empire. He also secretly ordered Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, the governor of Syria, to block all Germanicus' orders and, as many contemporaries believed, to arrange his death.

The following extract begins with the arrival of Germanicus and Piso in the east in AD18.

'Piso in Syria'

at Cn. Piso, quo celerius consilia inciperet, postquam Syriam ac legiones attigit, largitione et ambitu infimos militum iuvabat. cum veteres centuriones, severos tribunos demovisset, locaque eorum clientibus suis attribuisset, desidiam in castris, licentiam in urbibus, lascivientes per agros milites sinebat.

*****

But after he reached Syria and the legions, and so that he could begin his plans sooner, Gnaeus Piso aided the most disreputable of soldiers with gifts and bribery. When he had removed the senior centurions and the upright tribunes, and had given their positions to his own clients, he allowed idleness in the camp, debauchery in the towns and the soldiers to rampage through the countryside.

I'll put some more up soon.

Argh... sorry, I thought I'd have time to do this but I don't. Basically, Germanicus dies, his wife goes home and everyone mourns, but Piso celebrates, they find lots of curses and evil objects that they think killed Germanicus, they blame Piso, he struggles to defend himself in court, so he kills himself.

Sorry to spoil the ending

JoeC

I'd like to learn some latin too.
I just know a few well-known simple phrases at the moment.

Cogito ergo sum - I think, therefore, I am.
Et tu, Brute (Probably, I've not seen it spelt) - You too, Brutus?
N.B. - Nota bene - Note well.
Et cetera - (Actually, what is the literal translation of that?)

We once came across a place called 'The Royal Burgh of Forres' with a coat of arms all over the place with the words 'Jehovah tu mihi deus quid deest'. The tourist brochure said the translation was 'O Eternal, thou art my God, what lacketh?' but it's clearly 'Oh Jehovah, you are my God, what lacks?'. It gave a bit more information on the words:
tu:you
mihidative)me
deus:God (hence 'diety')
quid:what (so what does Quid pro quo mean?)

And 'deest' assumably means 'lacks'.

We've got some cushions downstairs with latin writing on, is there anyone here who could explain them to me if I post the writing sometime?

Et cetera = 'and the rest', 'and the others'.

If it's fairly simple Latin, I could probably translate your cushions

JoeC

I'm in my fourth year in public school latin, I'd be glad to try and teach people, although I'm no expert!

Nice thread it's lovely to have found some experts who can help me with my son's translations then
My granny had a cushion with the family motto on it, it ran:
Nec temere nec timide
which means as much as: neither fearful nor timid
A bit difficult to do two translations for one subject

In an attepmt to assert myself, I'm going to say those are adverbs and say "neither fearfully nor timidly"

Sorry, had to!

Here's what is written on our cushions:

LOQUERIS
Si vis me flere, Dolendum est
Telephe vel Peleu male si ipsi
dormitabo aut Mandata
on satis est pulchra
Ridentibus adrident, ita
RIDEBO

[Slinks away to hid in a corner...]

The third to last line (in satis...) is "in enough is beauty"
I can figure out other random words, but I don't know enough...

Looks as if I'll have to ask my son to translate it for me
Fortunately he's still having holidays, so there'll be enough time for him to riddle over this
As to the adverbs: I said it was difficult to translate two times

Perfectly alright, I was just being silly and trying to make myself look good before you all find out how little I can do!

Can you help me? I'm doing the artwork for the Forum now, and rather than "I go to the Forum" we thought it might sound spiffy in Latin, if only we could find a translator.

Lil

(creator of badge and banner for The Language Thing )

Well, I'm not very sure about this , because you hardly ever translate from any language into Latin but only do so vice versa, but should be something like: "ad forum eo" or perhaps you'd prefer : "in forum intro", which means "to enter".

A couple of phrasings...

Ambulo ad forum (I walk to the forum)
In foro sum (I am in the forum)
Eme pisces! (Buy fish!)
Clame et homi tuum audibunt! (Shout and people will hear you!)
Ille porcum nolo! (Sorry, this was actually a puch line from a story in my textbook "I want that pig!")

Er, that's all i can think of