Need help translating a quote into Latin

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smart
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Need help translating a quote into Latin

Post by smart »

I have always loved this quote from Marcus Aurelius - "The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing".
I need help translating it into Latin, with any special characters it needs, etc.
Took Latin for 2 years in high school was very informative learned a lot about the English language through its roots and also a lot of the Spanish and French that I frequently hear
I wasn't going to go and put this into Google Translate because I know how rough the translations are, and I would think more-so with Latin.
Any help with this would be much appreciated.

petitor
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Re: Need help translating a quote into Latin

Post by petitor »

One suggestion:

ars vivendi potius luctari quam saltare
ignorantes latinam deo minore nati

adrianus
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Re: Need help translating a quote into Latin

Post by adrianus »

Alius monitus // another:
Non saltandi instar sed pancrati est ars vivendi.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

MatthaeusLatinus
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Re: Need help translating a quote into Latin

Post by MatthaeusLatinus »

Well, if it's Marcus Aurelius, then maybe we could find the original Greek text...

Patruus
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Re: Need help translating a quote into Latin

Post by Patruus »

Read it in Greek and Latin at the foot of this page -
http://books.google.com/books?id=mtUN0rTFRZsC&pg=PA40

smart
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Re: Need help translating a quote into Latin

Post by smart »

Thank you to all that replied, I would like to stay as true to his words as possible so the Google books link was a great idea, I appreciate it.
You said it is at the foot of the page, the 40th page?
And is it phrase 61. "Ars vivendi luctatoriae similior, quam salfatoriae quatenus adversus ea" ?
Want to get it exactly right, will be tattooed on me so I can see it every morning.
Thanks again for all the help.

timeodanaos
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Re: Need help translating a quote into Latin

Post by timeodanaos »

smart wrote:"Ars vivendi luctatoriae similior, quam salfatoriae quatenus adversus ea" ?
Look out!

1) The Latin you here quote is just an early translation of the original Greek. If you want the words of Marcus Aurelius tattooed, I should suggest you either get it in the original Greek or English; if you just want it to be in a foreign Language, why not Danish? Livet er snarere en brydekamp end en dans. This is only my personal opinion about tattoos, so just disregard it. More importantly:

2) Right now you are misquoting. It should be ars vivendi luctatoriae similior quam saltatoriae, i.e. without the last three word (which belong to the following clause), and the fourth letter of saltatoriae is a t, not an f. I take the liberty of removing the comma, since it seems unnatural both in English and Latin.

smart
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Re: Need help translating a quote into Latin

Post by smart »

I am a big fan of the Latin language and do not know much of the Greek, nor Danish.
I was born in South Africa where they speak Afrikaans which is similar to Dutch, but I'm sure Danish is quite different (though I'd think they'd be similarly rooted due to the geographical location).
This is exactly what I got tattooed on myself last night, I kinda figured it out beforehand.

ars vivendi luctatoriæ similior quam saltatoriæ

It did kind of look like saltatoriæ had an f in there but I figured it was just a bad copy and with the help of a little Google translate was able to fix that error. Also the "æ" on the end of it kinda looked like a "ce" but figured that didn't make any sense.

Anyway I am very pleased with the result and the font which I used, I can post a pic if anyone is interested. It is written across my clavicle and above the pectoral muscles.

Again thank you all for your help I wouldn't have been able to get it right without you guys.

Best Regards,

Shaun

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