I’m trying to translate this sentence from English to Latin, but unfortunately I don’t know enough Latin to do so. This is what I have come up with so far:
Aliquando ante saeculum glaciei et
ante totas in ordine solari in linea regunt …
mutare placeres meum nomen numeri telephoni in .
Gracias.
Does it make any sense? Am I on the right track? What should I change to make this correct?
This is what I’m trying to say:
Sometime before the next Ice Age and
before all the planets in our Solar System line up,
please change my Phone Display Name to .
Thanks!
I think you’re looking for “nomine novo”, the ablative singular of “nomen”, plus the neuter ablative singular of “novus/nova/novum” (new).
Or have I missed something?
Kilmeny
Maybe something like this:
Antequam alia redierit aetas glaciei
vel cunctae errantes stellae
quae solem comitantur
rursus compositae erunt acie una
oro vos precorque aliquando
meum nomen numeri telephoni
mutetis nomine novo.
Sic vobis gratias agam
“Before another Ice Age will have come again
or (before) all planets
which escort the Sun
will have been arranged again into one line
I ask you and pray to change sometimes
…
So will I thank you.”
Is it convincing enough?
I see I have a lot to learn! I was trying to hard too do a literal translation, which of course, didn’t come out as elegantly as yours. The only parts I recognized from my feeble attempt was “meum nomen numeri telephoni”.
I wanted to substitute someone’s name in .
So if I want to say “please change my Phone Display Name to Anne Elliot”, would the penultimate line read instead “mutetis Anne Elliot”?
Of course, you would have to put Anne Elliot in the ablative. Anni Elliote, perhaps?
How is Sir Walter, by the way?
Hic ut solet sibi deditus est.
I mean to say, “he is self-centered as usual.” Did that come out OK in Latin?
How do you decline people’s names, especially if their names don’t fall under the usual Latin endings like Marcus, Cornelius, etc?
I’m not sure about self-centred, and I haven’t got my Latin dictionary with me, sorry. I’m doing Greek today.
For names, if they don’t have one of the usual nom. endings, just choose one that sounds right. I assumed Anne would be declined like mare (sea) and Elliot would be a third declension noun Elliot - Elliotis.
[quote author=mariek link=board=3;threadid=345;start=0#2598 date=1059940131]
So if I want to say “please change my Phone Display Name to Anne Elliot”, would the penultimate line read instead “mutetis Anne Elliot”?
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Following the “modern” (i. e. 18th century AD) use, I shoud say mutetis nomine Annae Elliott, the first name only being inflected.
Speaking of your original translation, it wasn’t bad, but I preferred to build up my own version, with words I am familiar with. For example, I put aetas instead of saeculum because I know the phrase aurea aetas “the Golden Age” and because saeculum means often a “generation” (30 years).
Now, I hope that the Telephone Company will swiflty react.
You know, you deserve it well : “Sometime before the next Ice Age…” It has style !