Tanslation Help

Latin Learning Latin
1

Hi guys,

Your my last resort so im hoping you can help me.

Im am getting a tattoo done but and i have an English phrase that i want translating into Latin, i have tried all the internet translators but they are not accurate enough for what i require so i am hoping one of you guys may be able to help me in getting “My Own Worst Enemy” translated into Latin please.

Or if anyone can reccomend a good proffesional translation service that would also be appreciated

Regards

Joe

2

Hi Joe,

You’ve definitely come to the right place.

I’d suggest something along the lines of…

meus inimicus pessimus mihi

But as I am not completely sure who this enemy is, you might want something else. Are you implying that you are your own worst enemy? In that case, you could perhaps say, with an implicit sum (‘am’):

ego inimicus pessimus mihi

Literally, the Latin goes: I foe worst to myself > I am my own worst enemy.

Other members here will probably have better suggestions… :confused:

3

Hi amans,

Thank you very much for your help.

In answer to your question, i am implying that “I” am my own worst enemy

so it would seem that the second version would be more appropriate?

4

ego inimicus pessimus mihi

I believe ego can be ommited.

5

Joe, you’re welcome :slight_smile: Yes, I suggest you use the second version.

ego can be omitted but, as sum is also omitted, it may prove a little difficult to see that inimicus pessimus is actually a predicate (take x = y, and leave out both ‘x’ and ‘=’ …)

Therefore, I’d definitely keep the ego but still leave out the sum to give the phrase the power of compactness. Further, I’d use an explicit subject, ego, since it is somewhat surprising that one can be one’s own worst enemy.

Joe, what we’re a discussing here is this: the sentence says ‘I am my own worst enemy’. My Latin attempt leaves out ‘am’, for this is very characteristic of Latin. Deses suggests leaving out ‘I’, too, but then it just says ‘worst enemy to me’, and as I said, that would leave me uncertain who that enemy actually was.

6

You know, I bet the whole concept stems from Cicero’s De Finis Bonorum et Malorum:

necesseque est, si quis sibi ipsi inimicus est, eum quae bona sunt mala putare, bona contra quae mala, et quae appetenda fugere, quae fugienda appetere, quae sine dubio vitae est eversio.

5.28.7.

Hence sibi ipsi inimicus or even ipsi inimicus should be used. By all means, sibi inimicus erit quis temere stigmam erroneam inscripserit corpore suo…

7

Hi guys,

I just wanted to say a big thankyou for all the help youve given me.

Ill post a picture of my tattoo once ive had it done.

Cheers again

8

As you can see, there are still some doubts about the best rendition. I’d go with Cicero.

9

can anyone else offer an opinion on this as i am wanting to have my tattoo done in the next couple of weeks

cheers guys

10

I would say:

IPSE MIHI INIMICISSIMVS

or

IPSE MIHI INIMICISSIMVS SVM

In case you’re wondering, ‘ipse’ modifies attributively ‘ego,’ not ‘mihi’ as with Cicero’s example, of which word (‘ego’) there is an ellipsis. Actually, I don’t know that it necessarily constitutes an instance of ellipsis, given that ellipsis is the omission of a word whose presence is essential to the making of a complete syntactical construction.

11

can anyone clairify this for me then as at the minute all of the following have been suggested.

  1. ego inimicus pessimus mihi

  2. inimicus pessimus mihi

  3. ipse mihi inimicissimvs

  4. ipse mihi inimicissimvs svm

  5. sibi ipsi inimicus

My knowledge of latin is non existant so if all of the above are similar to each other then could someone please give me an accurate as possible translation of each please

cheers for your help on this guys.

12

  1. ego inimicus pessimus mihi —> ‘Ego’ here is superfluous. ‘Pessimus’ is superfluous, as ‘inimicus’ has its own superlative.

  2. inimicus pessimus mihi —> ‘Pessimus’ is superfluous, as ‘inimicus’ has its own superlative form, ‘inimicissimvs’.

  3. ipse mihi inimicissimvs —> From everything that I have read, this seems to be the ideal construction.

→ or mihi ipse inimicissimvs (Im not sure which word order was favored by the Romans)

  1. ipse mihi inimicissimvs svm —> ‘Svm’ isn’t necessary, per se, but its presence is certainly not incorrect.

→ or mihi ipse inimicissimvs svm (Im not sure which word order was favored by the Romans)

  1. sibi ipsi inimicus —> ‘Sibi’ doesn’t make sense if you are trying to say “I am my own worst enemy”. This phrase means “enemy to himself” which is not what you are trying to say.


    The following excerpt from “New Latin Grammar” avouches my suggested translations:

f. Ipse usually agrees with the subject, even when the real emphasis in English is on a reflexive in the predicate.

me ipse consolor (Lael. 10) I console myself. [Not me ipsum, as the English would lead us to expect.]

p.s.

Classical Latin never had the letter ‘u’, so I omitted it, replacing it with ‘v’, in my two suggestions. Nowadays, they would be written thusly:

ipse mihi inimicissimus

ipse mihi inimicissimus sum

Both ways of writing them are correct. Use whichever you prefer.

p.p.s. You seem a bit too hasty to get this tattoo. Seeing as this thing will be on your skin for the entirety of your life, you should perhaps be absolutely certain that this is what you want before you have it done. Explore some other possibilities. You have all the time in the world to get this tattoo, but once it’s on there, you’re stuck with it. And that concludes my unsolicited and friendly advice to you. :smiley:

13

Hi ReceptviCanatvr,

You have a lot of good ideas. You seem set on removing everything superfluous. It is not, however, so easy to determine what is really superfluous and what is not.

You suggest that inimiccismus may replace pessismus inimicus, but are there not differences in their meaning? I think so. You may still want to prefer inimiccismus. It means ‘very hostile’ or ‘most hostile’ - what pessimus does do in pessismus inimicus is not just to suggest the superlative, but to attempt to render ‘worst’ in ‘my own worst enemy’. Thus, your rendition is one particular interpretation of ‘my own worst enemy’.

Further, why do you discard ego in #1 but not sum in #4? I think it is misleading to suggest that there are only a few ‘correct’ renditions of the text. For the word order of all the suggestions so far may be played around with, producing many, many other possible renditions of the motto. To take the one you seem to prefer, you’ll have six options, all grammatically correct:

ipse mihi inimicissimus
ipse inimicissimus mihi
mihi ipse inimicissimus
mihi inimicissimus ipse
inimicissimus ipse mihi
inimicissimus mihi ipse

Not one of them is ‘THE correct’ option, for word order expresses the relative importance of the words in Latin. The first and last position are the most important. So, do you want to say: MY own worst enemy, my OWN worst enemy, my own WORST enemy or my own worst ENEMY?

Finally, I’d like to ask what you base your P.S. about ‘u’ and ‘v’ on? This issue has been discussed intensely in these forums. See for example:

http://discourse.textkit.com/t/vs-and-us/3735/1

fac ualeas

14

Thank you for your concern ReceptviCanatvr but i can assure youi that the decission about this tattoo has not been reushed at all, it is something i have wanted for a long time, the same as all of my other tattoo’s i have had, i am just wanting to make sure i have the correct or most relevant translation possilbe, thanks again though

15

Hi ReceptviCanatvr

thankyou for you for helping me decide which of the translations which would be the most relevant but unfortuantely as i know nothing about latin your explanations are lost on me.
Im afraid i will need the idiots explanation to each of the translations if that is at all possible?

Cheers

Joe