Learn to appreciate what you have before time makes you appreciate what you had

[The Kenosha Kid]

those who are most learned and experienced are also rather humble and fully recognize the intrinsic difficulty of translating certain sentences.

These same, my dear friend, have deceived themselves; they can't see the forest for the trees.

 

[Callaina]

Chiasmi of this kind, being for the most part 'words to live by', aren't concerned with rigid grammar or exactitude

That's funny. I would've thought that words one lives by, being, after all, the most important of all words, should show (if anything) a greater exactitude than those spoken thoughtlessly and in passing.

 

[Callaina]

These same, my dear friend, have deceived themselves; they can't see the forest for the trees.

Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den.

 

[The Kenosha Kid]

The translation of one language into another is not a process of translating each proposition of the one into a proposition of the other, but only the constituent parts of propositions are translated.

 

[Dantius]

Although I prefer Pacifica's or Aurifex's translation, I don't think we should entirely ignore The Kenosha Kid's translation. One thing that I like from his translation is the use of the verb "doceo" as a contrast to "disce" in the beginning.

To me,
Disce videre quanta sint quae habes, antequam tempus efficiat ut videas quanta fuerint quae iam non habes.
sounds rather clunky. Perhaps we should change it to:
Disce videre quanta sint quae habes, antequam tempus doceat quanta fuerint quae iam non habes/habebis.

 

[Pacifica]

I liked the used of doceat as well, and I thought about doing the same you just did, but then I found it destroyed some of the symmetry by keeping disce videre... but removing the second videre. I guess we could say antequam tempus doceat te videre ("before time teaches you to see"), or else, remove the first videre, and make it "Learn how great are the things you have before time teaches you how great were the things you no longer have", but I feel that may be modifying the idea of the original a bit too much. Hence I thought I'd stick to the slightly more literal translation.

 

[Dantius]

Actually, removing the first videre seems like it might work. I suppose Ethan9482 would have to say whether "Learn how great the things you have are, before time teaches you how great the things you no longer have were" fits his meaning well.

 

[Ethan9482]

Actually, removing the first videre seems like it might work. I suppose Ethan9482 would have to say whether "Learn how great the things you have are, before time teaches you how great the things you no longer have were" fits his meaning well.

Hello again all, I really appreciate you all chipping in here - I would love to understand Latin but I just don't and struggle with the mindset to learn it!

So, in terms of what it means to me, it will be a tattoo, in Latin as my others are so nobody (in general) can read it regardless, it is more important what it means to me.

The idea behind it is a reflection on events, people and things in my life that at the time I treated as the norm and didn't value them. Only when I no longer could, did I realise what a mistake I had made and suffered the regret of wishing I had.

The tattoos I have I use a reminder to myself when I slip, so this is to remind me to stop living in and missing the past or worrying about the future and enjoy precisely where I am and what I have. The rest will figure itself out.

I hope that helps, apologies I maybe should have added this at the start - I didn't realise there could be so much variance in it.

 

[The Kenosha Kid]

this is to remind me

That is, to remind you in a language you don't know.

 

[Callaina]

That is, to remind you in a language you don't know.

Maybe it's to remind him to appreciate the time he has left and use it in a disciplined way to master Latin, before he loses it.

 

[Ethan9482]

Yep, its a tattoo - I don't need to be able to read it to know what it means to me and for it to have a purpose and the ability to remind of something important.

I would love to be able to learn a language outside of English but I don't have the mindset.

 

[Dantius]

Anyway, would a Latin phrase meaning:
"Learn how great the things you have are, before time teaches you how great the things you no longer have were"
work for what you want?

 

[Ethan9482]

Anyway, would a Latin phrase meaning:
"Learn how great the things you have are, before time teaches you how great the things you no longer have were"
work for what you want?

Yep that is pretty much what I am looking for, thank you.

 

[Dantius]

Disce quanta sint quae habes, antequam tempus doceat quanta fuerint quae iam non habebis.

This seems like it should work then, but just make sure everyone agrees.

 

[Ethan9482]

Disce quanta sint quae habes, antequam tempus doceat quanta fuerint quae iam non habebis.

This seems like it should work then, but just make sure everyone agrees.

Thanks I appreciate your time.

 

[Pacifica]

Disce quanta sint quae habes, antequam tempus doceat quanta fuerint quae iam non habebis.

This seems like it should work then, but just make sure everyone agrees.

I think it works.

 

[Aurifex]

Here's an interesting use of tenses in Seneca, De Beneficiis, Book 2:
"Sic efficies, ut animum tuum pluris aestimet quam illud, quidquid est, ad quod petendum venerat. Tunc est summa virtus tribuentis, tunc benignitas, ubi ille, qui discessit, dicet sibi..."

 

[Ethan9482]

By that logic you may as well try this one out:

culus sum ingens, nec aliter dici potestur

You are not automatically smart because you can speak a language I can't. There are a lot of things i can do that you seem to struggle with - basic human decency and kindness.

Everyone is a smart ass behind a keyboard. How do you get on in the real work when people mock you back?

Thanks very much to Pacifica, Dantius. Auriflex and the rest who have helped. I feel deeply sorry for you guys that people like this project every stereotype about people with your knowledge and get access to your forum. They ruin it for others.

 

[The Kenosha Kid]

Yeesh. I guess my help doesn't count for anything.

Listen, guy, I wasn't trying to shatter your world with my little barb. It's just that you don't have any criteria by which to judge the correctness of what you're given here, so why ask? Probably because you value the time of others as little as your own. But that's neither here nor there. You're welcome for my offering, and good luck with your tattoo.

 

[Callaina]

Yeesh. I guess my help doesn't count for anything.

Listen, guy, I wasn't trying to shatter your world with my little barb. It's just that you don't have any criteria by which to judge the correctness of what you're given here, so why ask? Probably because you value the time of others as little as your own. But that's neither here nor there. You're welcome for my offering, and good luck with your tattoo.

culus sum ingens, nec aliter dici potestur

Truer word* was never spoken.

*Well, aside from the glaring ungrammaticality of potestur, LOL.