Re: Changing Virgil/Jules Verne sentence!
That's wrong to begin with. The line runs
et tē, sī quă uĭam dĕdĕrit Fortūnă, Lătīnō
(iungēmus rēgī)
Well, blame Jules Verne.
Additionally, in the
William Butcher's version ("Journey to the Centre of the Earth", Oxford University Press, 1992 – wich is "based on the 1867 one used in modern French editions - Livre de Poche, Garnier-Flammarion, Rencontre, Hachette"), the phrase is quoted as "Et quacumque viam dederit fortuna sequamur". Butcher translates this sentence as "And whatever route fortune gives, we shall follow", and expressly attributes it to Virgil ("The Aeneid, Book 11, v. 128", he writes).
So, blame William Butcher too.
If 'whatever route' is supposed to be the object of fortuna, then it should be quamcumque viam, otherwise it doesn't make sense.
Verne was student in a french "seminaire", where latin was one of the most important disciplines. His learning was based in one book: "Eléments de la grammaire latine par Lhomond, professeur emerite de la ci-devant Universite de Paris". The latin sentence is a pointer to the pages 229/231 of the 1800 edition of
Charles François Lhomond's book - "quacumque": the middle word CUM (never CUN) means "with", "avec", "mit".
Here I've found this ancient sentences:
Cic. Q. Fr. 2, 8 (10), 1: “qui quācumque de causā ad eos venerunt,” Caes. B. C. 6, 23: “quocumque modo,” Liv. 22, 58, 5: “ubicumque et quācumque matre genitus,” id. 1, 3, 3: “qui de quācumque causā tum aspernati nostra auxilia estis,” id. 45, 23, 6: “quācumque condicione arma viris auferre”...
Additionally, in German edition ("Reise zum Mittelpunkt der Erde", Fischer Tachenbuch Verlag, 1998., page 90), also the Verne's sentence is: "Et quacumque viam dederit fortuna sequamur".
That does not appear to be true. If you look at the end of chapter XI in the original text of Voyage au centre de la terre, it seems that the phrase is quoted as follows:
(...)
That's the original text or a adaptation to modern french?
Here,
here and
here the phrase is quoted as "quacumque".
This English version puts the following English translation in brackets, after the Latin: "And whichsoever way thou goest, may fortune follow!"
This English version supplies the following translation, after the Latin: "Therever fortune clears a way, Thither our ready footsteps stray."
The first and second translations are absolutely dissimilar. In fact, while the first probably denotes either ignorance or negligence, the second is a poetic version of "Whatever way destiny gives, we shall follow". In the original sentence, "fortuna" doesn't mean "(good) fortune", but "destiny", "fate", "chance", so "may fortune follow" sound quite strange. In German edition (Op. cit), the Verne's sentence is translated to "Welchen Weg uns das Geschick auch weisen wird, wir folgen ihm" ("Whatever way destiny gives, we shall follow", in english). In
Archeologia Sotterranea #1 (October, 2009), Leonella De Santis, Leonella De Santis, Italian archaeologist, quote "et quacumque viam dederit fortuna sequamur" and translate the phrase as "e qualunque sia la sua direzione, seguiamo la via che la sorte ci ha dato" (something like “And whatever direction destiny gives, we shall follow”).
I don't think you want to mess up the hexametre that way... it would make you sound quite ignorant
Well, I'm just as ignorant in English as anyone whose first language isn't English AND is still learning it. In true, I can consider myself just as ignorant as anyone here, when you all decided to learn Latin by practicing and asking other people without fear. Anyway, "we follow alone" was huge my mistake. What I mean is something like "And whatever route destiny gives, we shall follow (that route) in solitude" (i.e.: every man has to follow his own destiny in solitude).
Thank you all, anyway...