Wondered if i could get a help with a translation?

Latin Learning Latin
1

Firstly, hi there!

I’m new to these boards, but I have read the post on asking for translations. so I know you guys prefer if we attempt translations ourselves…

The situation is that my fiancee and I are due to be married within 12 months and for the occasion we wished for a poem (as you can guess) written in Latin…

I have the poem here, in English, and this is what we would like it to say:

  • Spoken in Latin,

  • We choose to love,

  • Not for you, not for me, but for us,

  • In spirit and truth.

  • From the bottom of our hearts,

  • Through the clouds, through the stars,

  • To infinity without end,

  • Love conquers all.

  • Every morning, every night,

  • For now, for eternity,

  • From day to day,

  • Nothing stands in our way,

  • Therefore, let us rejoice,
    – And let us surrender to love.

  • And True love will hold on,

  • To those whom it has held.

I have absolutely no prior knowledge of Latin, and am presently not learning it (not through lack of desire, just sheer lack of hours in the day!! Probably a poor excuse, I know…!).

Anyway, through books and the internet, I have managed to come up with the following:

Latine dictum,
Amor animi arbitrio sumitur,
Non mihi, non tibi, sed nobis,
In spiritu et veritate,

Ab imo pectore,
Per nubibus, per astra,
In infinitum,
Omnia vincit amor,

Quaque mane, quaque nocte,
Pro nunc, in aeternum,
De die in diem,
Nihil obstat,

Gaudeamus igitur,
Et nos cedamus amori.
Et Quos amor verus tenuit,
Et tenebit.

Anyways, I was just wondering if you guys could help me so that I could get the perfect Latin translation on that…

Sorry to trouble you all, and also sorry for the long post!!!

2

First of all, that is very impressive. I have no idea how you could have written that without prior knowledge of Latin. It is totally correct unless I have missed some error. I noticed some borrowed lines from Vergil and the famous “Gaudeamus igitur (dum iuvenes sumus)”. There are however a few oddities but I am too tired right now to be of any service to you. I’ll go over it later unless someone else gets to it.

3

Thanks very much for your comments!

However, don’t level too much praise in my direction! To do that took me a long time, and it was aided by books and the internet! And as you excellently spotted, I used a couple of well established lines, as they seemed to fit in well.

(Please don’t think I wish to pass those lines off as my own, and nor am I trying to make this out to be a poem I want to “take credit for”, so to speak - this is just something that we wanted for our wedding, and these are the sentiments we wanted to express - sometimes the borrowed lines were just better than what we originally had planned to say.)

Also, I ended up changing a couple of the ideas of the poem in English based on what I could deduce in Latin…such as the following:

  • For now, for eternity,
  • From day to day,
  • Nothing stands in our way,

Which was originally:

  • From now to eternity,
  • Each and every day,
  • Nothing will stand in our way,

But, nonetheless, thank you greatly for taking the time to read this, and for offering your comments and advice! It is appreciated.

4

That’s a lie right there.