Yes, I do. “To have loved” would be a nice, understandable motto (= “To have lived and to have loved! (Better than never to have lived and loved!)”).
Iterum, sic puto. Et bellum et intellectibile “amavisse” ut emblema aestimo ( = “Vixisse et amavisse! (Melius est quàm nunquàm vixisse et amavisse!)”).
Adrianus, you are making a big mistake, like many people when starting to learn a foreign language (unfortunatelly, I know that very well, not only as a language teacher, but also as a lanuage learner): you think in English and you are trying to speak/write in Latin! Inevitably, you make mistakes. The sentence that you mention is NEVER grammatical in latin… “Amavisse” always in latin means “that I have lived/that I lived”, not “to have lived” NEVER… It has nothing to do with the way you translate it in English.
Your sentence is not bad Latin; it is no Latin at all.
In Latin, Adrianus, you can not say “We ought to have loved” as “Debuimus *amavisse”. This is not Latin, at all… It is always “debuimus amare”. You can not say “licebit *amavisse”; only “licebit amare”. You can not say “necesse est/erat/fuit… *amavisse”; only “necesse est/erat/fuit… amare”. The same with “it is better to have done… than to have done…”; it is never “melius est *dedisse… quam *dedisse…” but “melius est dare… quam dare…” (at least in prose for sure)
You cannot also say in Latin “necesse est *amaturum esse” (the same in english)
What you can say is "visum est mihi te amavisse catellum meum ". “It seemed to me that you had loved my puppy”; or “visum est nobis vos amaturos esse equos vestros”. “It seemed to us that you will love your horses”. Or, of course “visus es amavisse catellum meum”; “you seemed to me to have loved my puppy” (which, literally speaking, means , “you seemed that you had loved my puppy”). The same “visi estis amaturi esse equos vestros”; “you seemed to be about to love your horses” (which, literally speaking, means again “you seem that you will love your horses”). The word order is in purpose not the usual one in Latin.
In English you can say “I would prefer to have given him a present”. In Latin you can not say “Malui *dedisse…”. Only “Malui dare…”
I am getting tired saying the same thing again and again: LATIN INFINITIVES ARE NOT LIKE ENGLISH ONES. So are Latin participles, Latin gerunds, Latin…
Read the following passage from Bennett’s Latin grammar. Colour and underlining is done by me… (You can find a lot of things in other grammars, as well)
TENSES OF THE INFINITIVE.
270. 1. The tenses of the Infinitive denote time not absolutely, but with reference to the verb on which they depend. > Thus:—
a) The Present Infinitive represents an act as contemporaneous with the time of the verb on which it depends; as,—
vidētur honōrēs adsequī, he seems to be gaining honors;
vidēbātur honōrēs adsequī, he seemed to be gaining honors.
b) The Perfect Infinitive represents an act as prior to the time of the verb on which it depends; as,—
vidētur honōrēs adsecūtus esse, he seems to have gained honors;
vīsus est honōrēs adsecūtus esse, he seemed to have gained honors.
c) The Future Infinitive represents an act as subsequent to that of the verb on which it depends; as,—
vidētur honōrēs adsecūtūrus esse, he seems to be about to gain honors;
vīsus est honōrēs adsecūtūrus esse, he seemed to be about to gain honors.
2. Where the English says ‘ought to have done,’ ‘might have done,’ etc., the Latin uses dēbuī, oportuit, potuī (dēbēbam, oportēbat, poteram), with the Present Infinitive; as,—
dēbuit dīcere, he ought to have said (lit. owed it to say);
opōrtuit venīre, he ought to have come;
potuit vidēre, he might have seen.
a. Oportuit, volō, nōlō (and > in poetry > some other verbs), may take a Perfect Infinitive instead of the Present; as,—hōc jam prīdem factum esse oportuit, this ought long ago to have been done. > > EXCEPTION
3. PERIPHRASTIC FUTURE INFINITIVE. Verbs that have no Participial Stem, express the Future Infinitive Active and Passive by fore ut or futūrum esse ut, with the Subjunctive; as,—spērō fore ut tē paeniteat levitātis, I hope you will repent of your fickleness (lit. hope it will happen that you repent);
spērō futūrum esse ut hostēs arceantur, I hope that the enemy will be kept off.
a. The Periphrastic Future Infinitive is often used, especially in the Passive, even in case of verbs which have the Participial Stem; as,—
spērō fore ut hostēs vincantur, I hope the enemy will be conquered.
- Passives and Deponents sometimes form a Future Perfect Infinitive with fore; as,—
spērō epistulam scrīptam fore, I hope the letter will have been written;
dīcō mē satis adeptum fore, I say that I shall have gained enough.
I am not an expert neither in Latin nor in English. Greek is my field. I am not trying (personally or not) to dispute with anyone or scold anyone. I just defend my stand on the matter.
“that I have lived/that I lived” is a particular instance of the general sense “to have lived” in English.
I am working on a project for Valentine’s day that involves a latin translation of an original phrase.
Could someone please tell me how you would translate the phrase:
“would be in the palm of my hand” like you were holding something.
Also, as an aside, can someone tell me the correct translation of
“Happy Valentine’s Day.”
Thank you for your help.
Jeanne