Oath of the Night's Watch

Latin Learning Latin
21

How about this:

nunc vigiliam suscipio non nisi morte desituram.

literally:

“I now undertake a watch that will not end except with death.”

This reflects an assumption of responsibility on the part of the oath-taker and bundles the otiose possessive adjectives into the verbal ending. non nisi morte seems to me like a very idiomatic way to express idea of “until my death.” desituram future participle from desino. The participle combines two related clauses seamlessly without use of a relative or anaphoric pronoun.

22

I cannot express enough how excited I am to be getting feedback from all of you. I wish I’d known about this site a long, long time ago.

Ensis vs. Gladius - Ensis it is, then.

I’ll also trust your judgment on the Moenia vs. murus.

Tuens vs. custodiens - Fair enough. Variety it is. And with tuens, I also bow to your sense of alliteration. Gotta love a language flexible enough to pull that off.

It’s good to know that Latin prefers longer statements than English, but for the purposes of translation, I feel like the stop-and-start nature of the oath, with its stylistically short declaratives, is something that’s part of the general flavor that I wouldn’t want to be rid of. I respect the translation you’ve done, and if it were a basic prose translation, I would agree, but with the pseudo-poetic incantatory nature of the Oath, I think maintaining the original separation of the statements would be appropriate. With that in mind, I’ll stick with the nunc incipit mea vigilia, as you suggested.

Other possibilities I’m considering while looking over the translation as it currently stands -

Promitto vs. Obligo. Promitto seems somehow less solemn and dignified and life-altering than Obligo. Please correct me if I’m wrong or the sense is out of place.

Do the same thing in French and Italian, too!

Qimmik, When I eventually get to French and Italian, I will try and remember that. I make no promises.

As a means of cleaning up the last line a bit - Noctem hanc noctes omnes futurasque.

So, just to keep it all in one place -

Nox ruit, nunc incipit mea vigilia.
Non finiet dum morior.
Nullam uxorem ducam,
Nulla arva obtinebo,
Nullos liberos generabo.
Nulla diademata geram,
Et nullam gloriam adipiscar.
Vivam et moriar in statione.
Velut ensis in tenebris ego,
Custos in moenia,
Velut scutum terras tuens hominum.
Vitam honoremque meum Vigilis Noctis obligo,
Noctem hanc noctes omnes futurasque.

23

dum morior means “while I am dying”. dum moriar (the subjunctive) would be “until I die”.

24

Apologies, I meant to type moriar. Apparently even undead languages aren’t immune to typos.

25

dum morior means “while I am dying”. dum moriar (the subjunctive) would be “until I die”.

dum + indicative can mean “until.”

When it’s used with the indicative to mean “until”, it implies that the action actually happened, with the subjunctive, it can’t be certain whether or not the action happened

26

When it’s used with the indicative to mean “until”, it implies that the action actually happened, with the subjunctive, it can’t be certain whether or not the action happened

Not invariably: multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem Inferretque deos Latio

moriar could be fut. indic. or pres. subj.

better: non nisi morte finiet

In the last line, a preposition is needed, probably in+acc. Also, -que should be attached to the first element of the noun phrase, not the last.

27

Qimmik & Ultrus - Thank you for your feedback. It’s much appreciated.

Is there a good discussion or resource you can recommend for understanding when prepositions are needed and when they can be inferred from case markings alone, or is this something that will simply have to come naturally over the course of absorbing the language through reading?

The only reason I hesitate on the ‘non nisi morte finiet’ version of the phrase is because I agree with the much-earlier comment by Craig_Thomas - “meam mortem remains because his watch could plausibly end upon another’s death.” That said, since there’s been use of alliteration elsewhere in the oath, adding in ‘mea’ would not only specify ‘morte’ but also enhance that aspect of the oath as well. Just a thought.

So, the corrected lines -

Non nisi mea morte finiet
. . .
In noctem hanc noctesque omnes futuras.

28

No one would expect someone else’s death to be in issue here without some reference to another person. It’s crisper without mea. And mea should probably follow morte if you leave it in.

29

It’s been pointed out to me rather embarrassingly by a friend of mine that I began this thread with an incomplete oath, having watched a little too much of the HBO show and committed the sin of forgetting that the book’s version was different. With that being said, here’s my attempt at the complete oath, with the previously-omitted lines in bold.

Verba mea audite,
Sacramentum meum testificamini.
Nox ruit, nunc incipit vigilia mea.
Non nisi morte finiet.
Nullam uxorem ducam,
Nulla arva obtinebo,
Nullos liberos generabo.
Nulla diademata geram,
Nullam gloriam adipiscar.
Vivam et moriar in statione.
Velut ensis in tenebris ego.
Custos in moenia ego.
Velut ignis contra frigus incendere,
Velut lux auroram perficere,
Velut bucina dormientes excitare.
Velut scutum terras tuens hominum.
Vitam honoremque meum Vigilis Noctis obligo,
In noctem hanc noctesque omnes futuras.

“Hear my words, and bear witness to my vow.”
. . .
“I am the fire that burns against the cold,
the light that brings the dawn,
the horn that wakes the sleepers.”