Nōn Possum Satis Mox Fiērī Rēx ("Just Can't Wait to Be King" from Disney's Lion King)

[Gregorius]

As usual, my goal was to stay as faithful as possible under the constraints of also maintaining the rhythm and rhyme scheme. I welcome any questions, comments, suggestions, or corrections, as this is not necessarily the final draft.


Erō rēx tam fortissimus.
Fugiant inimīcī!
Sed bestiārum rēgem tam calvum
Quam tē numquam vīdī.

Erō rēx inlustrissimus
Ut nūllus ant' erat.
Dēspiciēns, maximē fremam,
Ut quisque mē audiat.

Adhūc fremendō nōn mē excitās.

Nōn possum satis mox fiērī rēx!

(Magnē prōficiendum est tibi, dominule, sī crēdis…)

Nēmō dīcet, "Fac hoc,"
(Cum illud dīxī…)
Vel dīcet, "Illūc ī,"
(Volēbam dīcere…)
Vel quidpiam vetābit,
(Id quod nōn scīs….)
Vel iubēbit, "Parē!"
(Nunc parē!)

Cursitābō tōtum diem!
(Prohibēbitur certē.)
Faciam omnia ut volō!

Sermōnem probum iam crēdō nōbīs conferendum.
Rēgibus leve'st aviculōrum consilium.

Sī regnum hoc regētur sīc,
Particeps haud erō!
Ē servitiō et ex Africā,
Nōn diū hīc manēbō.
Hic puer valdē ferox audaxque fit.

Nōn possum satis mox fiērī rēx.

Spectāte dextrorsum,
Etiam sinistrorsum.
Quōque cursū, erō
Omnium centrum!

Nunc canat quaeque fera maximē!
Audiātur carmen tam lātissimē!
Gaudēbimus cum rēge optimē!

Nōn possum satis mox fiērī rēx!
Nōn possum satis mox fiērī rēx!
Nōn possum satis mox fiērī rēx!

 

[Dantius]

A couple quick things I noticed:

Fugant inimīcī!

needs to be "fugiant"

Ut quisque mē audiat.

If this is "so that everyone can hear me", I don't know if they would use "quisque" – "omnes...audiant" seems better

 

[Gregorius]

Thanks so much for your feedback!

A couple quick things I noticed:
needs to be "fugiant"

Nice catch! I'll be correcting that shortly.

If this is "so that everyone can hear me", I don't know if they would use "quisque" – "omnes...audiant" seems better

I wondered the same thing, but Cassell's Latin Dictionary lists both "everyone" and "everybody" as a valid translation of quisque. The entry also includes a Ciceronian citation: suō cuique iūdiciō est ūtendum, which it translates as "everyone must use their own judgement." Still, were it not for the fact that it rhymes a bit better with singular audiat, I too would most likely default to ut omnēs mē audiant. I may yet decide that the plural verb form rhymes well enough anyway.

 

[Bitmap]

Btw, the e in fieri is short and the stress is on the first i.

 

[scrabulista]

lionking.org renders the early lines as:

I'm gonna be a mighty king
So enemies beware!

Well, I've never seen a king of beasts
With quite so little hair

I'm gonna be the mane event
Like no king was before

By itself, yes it would definitely be "main event," but in apposition to "quite so little hair," mane fits somewhat.

Maybe there's something you can do with jubatus (having a crest) along with jubeo (a king might issue orders) or jubilatus (there will be a great shout when he takes over) to capture both ideas.

 

[Pacifica]

I haven't read the whole post, but I wanted to drop by to say that satis mox strikes me as a rather unlikely phrase. I don't think I've ever seen mox modified by an adverb like that. Satis cito should work, grammatically. The meter is another matter (which I haven't looked at; I haven't listened to the original).

 

[Bitmap]

I haven't read the whole post, but I wanted to drop by to say that satis mox strikes me as a rather unlikely phrase. I don't think I've ever seen mox modified by an adverb like that. Satis cito should work, grammatically. The meter is another matter (which I haven't looked at; I haven't listened to the original).

It struck me as a bit weird, too ... but I didn't want to go into the research

 

[Dantius]

I haven't read the whole post, but I wanted to drop by to say that satis mox strikes me as a rather unlikely phrase. I don't think I've ever seen mox modified by an adverb like that. Satis cito should work, grammatically. The meter is another matter (which I haven't looked at; I haven't listened to the original).

Yeah, "satis mox" sounds weird to me, but at the same time "quam mox" is attested, so why not?

 

[Pacifica]

Dunno, PHI returns no result for satis mox, sat mox or minus (just for another adverb) mox, while it has examples of all those adverbs + cito.

 

[Bitmap]

Yeah, "satis mox" sounds weird to me, but at the same time "quam mox" is attested, so why not?

That sounds like 'as soon as possible' ... or does it mean something else?

 

[Pacifica]

It means "how soon".

 

[Pacifica]

So the point is mox can be modified by an adverb, at least this one, quam, but I'm still not confident about satis mox. It could be that quam is, for some reason, the only adverb found in conjunction with mox.

 

[Bitmap]

It means "how soon".

Ah, I see ...
I'm probably prejudiced by my own language a bit, but in German, the direct equivalent of 'quam mox' would make sense, while the direct equivalent of 'satis mox' or 'minus mox' wouldn't really make sense ...

 

[Pacifica]

Well, I personally think Latin is likely to be similar to German on that point!

 

[syntaxianus]

For that common phrase, "I just can't wait": what about

Non possum morari quin...(fiam rex).

 

[Gregorius]

For that common phrase, "I just can't wait": what about

Non possum morari quin...(fiam rex).

Not a bad idea, especially with the doubts regarding satis mox! I've also considered something like Utinam possem iam fierī rēx.

Btw, the e in fieri is short and the stress is on the first i.

It's too late for me to edit my original post, but duly noted. Thanks!