She ignores me but I devote every second to her...

WhiteWolfHero

New Member

Location:
Texas
She ignores me but I devote every second to her; She lies to me but I always tell her the truth; She calls me weak but I would fight through anything for her.

Kinda long but I hope someone can translate it. Many thanks in advanced for this.
 

deudeditus

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
California
what's it for? i only ask, because context can really help translations.

but i'll try to get the ball rolling. definitely wait for others to respond, as i'm trying to shake the rust off.


She ignores me but I devote every second to her
ea me neglegit at ei quodque secundum dedo.
i have to point out that i don't know the word for second in latin.

She lies to me but I always tell her the truth
[ea] mihi mentitur at ei semper vera dico

She calls me weak but I would fight through anything for her.
me dicit debilem at...
i could make an attempt to translate that last part, but it wouldn't be right, as i'm not sure if ei per quidquam pugnare would do.

you'll certainly want to wait for others to reply. there are some really knowledgeable people on this forum. i'm not one of them. ;)
 

Adamas

New Member

As far as I know, Latin originally had no word corresponding to our "second." They would have just said tempus and supplied demonstratives or adverbs as needed. In a vacuum, the word "time" to a Roman often implied this time -- thus ad tempus means "for the present moment." In late Latin, one could be more specific and say punctum temporis. You could also say vestigium temporis, temporis momentum, or momentum horae. None of these, however, is entirely precise, because Romans didn't calculate a discrete "second" (i.e., one-sixtieth of a minute) as we do. At most they had a vague concept of "the present" (praesens). This is shown by the fact that temporis momentum can just as easily mean "minute" rather than "second."

If you want to be more precise, you'll need to borrow neo-Latin terms like secunda (gen. secundae) and minuta (gen. minutae). These derive, respectively, from secunda pars minuta ("second diminished part") and prima pars minuta ("first diminished part"). Hence our modern "minute" was originally called the "prime minute" (and the second was the "second minute" -- the second divison of the hour into smaller parts!).
 

Adamas

New Member

Might as well give the translation a shot, too:


illa me neglegenti, eius tamen me quoque temporis dedo

illa mihi mentienti, ei tamen verum semper dico

illa me debilem appellanti, pro ea tamen cum aliquo lucter



Completely literal back-translation, to see if I've got the gist: "With her disregarding me, I nevertheless devote myself to her at each thing of time; with her lying to me, I nevertheless say to her only the truth; with her calling me feeble, I would nevertheless struggle through anything on her behalf."
 
B

Bitmap

Guest

Adamas dixit:
Might as well give the translation a shot, too:


illa me neglegenti, eius tamen me quoque temporis dedo


that should be neglegente ... but I can't make out what the second part is intended to mean (in other words: it doesn't make sense)


illa mihi mentienti, ei tamen verum semper dico

illa me debilem appellanti, pro ea tamen cum aliquo lucter
same for the other ablativi absoluti (-nte)
I suppose something like quovis would be better than aliquo
 

Adamas

New Member

Bitmap dixit:
Adamas dixit:
Might as well give the translation a shot, too:


illa me neglegenti, eius tamen me quoque temporis dedo


that should be neglegente ... but I can't make out what the second part is intended to mean (in other words: it doesn't make sense)

My mistake regarding the ablative absolutes; I'd forgotten that verbal uses are treated like substantives for present participles. Thanks for the correction!

Traupman's New Latin Dictionary claims that "to devote oneself to X" requires X in the genitive; other sources seem to use the (more intuitive) ablative, so I'll assume the dictionary is simply in error. Change the first line to illa me neglegente, ei tamen me quoque temporis dedo.
 
B

Bitmap

Guest

Adamas dixit:
other sources seem to use the (more intuitive) ablative
you mean the dative?!

Adamas dixit:
ei tamen me quoque temporis dedo.
I still don't understand the quoque temporis part in there. That doesn't make sense.
 

Adamas

New Member

Bitmap dixit:
Adamas dixit:
other sources seem to use the (more intuitive) ablative
you mean the dative?!

Adamas dixit:
ei tamen me quoque temporis dedo.
I still don't understand the quoque temporis part in there. That doesn't make sense.
Yes, the dative. I definitely need some sleep.

As for quoque, I was going for an ablative of time derived from quodque (whichever thing, each thing).
 
B

Bitmap

Guest

Oh, I see.
That doesn't really work, though.

First of all, as a stand-alone you can only use such neuter pronouns in the nominative or accusative - in other cases it's not entirely clear which gender is meant and usually preference is given to the interpretation that you're talking about a person. This is also the case with your "cum aliquo lucter", which would translate to "I will wrestle with somebody", but not "with something". You usually need an addition in such cases, e.g. "cum aliqua re". With the "second" thing, I suppose you'd have to add something like punctum or momentum if you want to translate "second" literally.
The second little problem is that forms of quisque are usually enclitic to superlatives, ordinal numbers, relative pronouns, reflexive pronouns or interrogative pronouns (SORRI) - although there are exceptions to this rule. With all of these lacking in the sentence you usually add the ordinal number yourself making it unusquisque.

One more thing that's just come to my mind (because it sounded weird all the time): You use an ablative absolute and then continue with a pronoun refering to that ablative ... that kind of takes away its absolute nature, makes the sentence look strange and is not what the Romans did I think. If the participle can be linked to a part of the sentence, it's usually done as a participium coniunctum (e.g. ei me neglegenti).

That would give you something like ei me neglenti me (tamen) unoquoque puncto temporis dedo. Obviously, this sentence has the problem that the gender of ei is not apparent anymore :p To make this aspect, you probably have to use a subordinate clause rather than the elegant PC ... e.g. cum illa me neglegat, me ei tamen unoquoque momento temporis dedo
 

WhiteWolfHero

New Member

Location:
Texas
Thank you all so much for helping me with this. The reason i post these is because I like to TRY to woo my girlfriend by expressing my feelings in different languages and latin, to me, is the most interesting language and even though I am not studying it currently I hope to study it some day so to all who help me a huge thanks.
 

Adamas

New Member

Well we haven't really given you a decent answer yet. My greatest appreciation to Bitmap for taking so much time to correct my errors. Since the ablative absolute construction is causing so many problems in this context, I'll attempt to run with Bitmap's cum-clause version; again my rendering may be imperfect, but at least you'll have a complete version you can use:

cum illa me neglegat, ei me tamen unoquoque momento temporis dedo
cum illa mihi mentiatur, ei tamen verum semper dico
cum illa me debilem appellet, ei tamen cum aliquo lucter


I actually like the ambiguity of cum aliquo lucter; unless I'm mistaken, I think WhiteWolfHero would be fine with a phrasing that basically means "struggle with anyone or anything."
 

WhiteWolfHero

New Member

Location:
Texas
Well even still Adamas anything you may enter, even if incorrect, is still helping me learn latin little by little. So great job everone you all are giving me alot of help. :applause: :applause: :applause:
 
B

Bitmap

Guest

Adamas dixit:

cum illa me debilem appellet, ei tamen cum aliquo lucter


I actually like the ambiguity of cum aliquo lucter; unless I'm mistaken, I think WhiteWolfHero would be fine with a phrasing that basically means "struggle with anyone or anything."
Again: This means "to wrestle with somebody", not with anybody. You're better off using a form of quivis here.
In this sentence, you may also write pro ea (this may even be a bit better), in which case the ambiguity gets lost if you express it in a participium coniunctum. Here, if you want, you could write pro illa me debilem appellante cum quovis lucter
 

Decimvs

Aedilis

  • Aedilis

Location:
Civitates Coniunctae
WhiteWolfHero dixit:
Thank you all so much for helping me with this. The reason i post these is because I like to TRY to woo my girlfriend by expressing my feelings in different languages...
I just thought it proper to mention, in light of the quote's content, that, if you are experiencing significantly distressing feelings due to this seemingly unrequited love, you would do well to seek out social support and/or counseling.

I mean this in all sincerity. I know that situations such as the one you detailed can be distressing and painful.
 

Imber Ranae

Ranunculus Iracundus

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Maybe something along these lines:

Me neglegenti singula temporis momenta dedo illi;
Adversus me mentienti tantum vera semper dico illi;
Pro illa imbecillum me
[esse] dicente contendam per omnia aspera.
 

Watson87

New Member

I am not the author of this post but now my curiosity gets to me as well. What is the correct way of saying it in full? Or at least, one of the correct ways.
 

Nikolaos

schmikolaos

  • Censor

Location:
Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan
Imber Ranae's post right above yours is good. Now that I think of it, all of Imber Ranae's posts are good :p
 

Issacus Divus

H₃rḗǵs h₁n̥dʰéri diwsú

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Gæmleflodland
Imber Ranae's post right above yours is good. Now that I think of it, all of Imber Ranae's posts are good :p
This is just as true, ten years later.
 

R. Seltza

Magnus Oculus

  • Civis Illustris

  • Patronus

Location:
Terra Solis Lapsi
Top