Hi, I’ve been trying to get a particular modern phrase into Latin for a little while now and I find myself struggling. I’m just learning as I go and I doubt I’ll ever be truly proficient at this. I end up second guessing myself wondering if I have the right tense and endings, or even the most correct wording.
The phrase in question is “Always have a saying” and the closest I’ve managed to get is “Semper habere sermonem”
Am I close? What am I doing wrong? Is there a better way? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You are being too literal. In English, “to have a saying” doesn’t mean “to have speech” (which is what sermonem would mean in your version), it actually means something to the effect of, “make sure that everyone is always expected to consider your opinion.”
Now, I don’t know if there is any sort of fixed locution to say that in Latin. I think that in Portuguese there is none. So you could render it into Latin, but it would be verbose, or at the very least not be as concise as the English.
W.H.D. Rouse says that the great advantage of translating into Latin/Greek is that it makes you more aware of exactly what you are saying in your mother tongue.
So I’m not sure exactly what “always have a saying” means in English. Do you mean something like “always have a proverb ready” (imperative)?
While I see where MiguelM is coming from, I think that he is thinking of English idiom “to have a say,” which unfortunately doesn’t extend to this usage (to my ear, that is). Maybe this is colloquial somewhere? It sounds like American South English, if anything.
You are indeed right. I think I fell for the automatism myself, since it is also opaque to me what “to have a saying” could mean, since it quite clearly does not mean “to have speech”; your “to always have a proverb ready” sounds quite possible.
Upon attempting to explain its meaning clearly, I can see where the phrase by itself can become a little difficult to deal with. I would consider it to be a sort of colloquialism that is usually said as a half-hearted piece of advice. Sort of like saying ‘hey you should have a motto to live your life by’ but in this instance it’s being used more literally as tongue in cheek (they chose a motto about having a motto as their motto). I hope that makes sense.
A motto on a coat of arms is placed in a banderole (a little banner) which is placed, in England at least, at the base of the coat of arms.
My first effort is this:
Utinam semper in bona verba vexillum habeam.
Would that I could always have the mot juste in [my] banner. I Have tried to match the fact that the motto is in a banner by enclosing bona verba in in vexillum.
Its a first draft and so I am sure someone will be able to correct and improve it.
I see, kind of like “quicquid latine dictum est altum videtur”. That would be challenging, and unlikely to be understood. How about: “Latine dictum ne tibi soli desit.”