WHAT WE DO IN LIFE, ECHOES IN ETERNITY

colemania1988

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hey guys, would greatly appreciate all who could give me a translation for the quote "WHAT WE DO IN LIFE, ECHOES IN ETERNITY" all feedback welcome
 

QMF

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Poetically, perhaps:
Echo nostra facta in vita clamat in Erebo.
 

colemania1988

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thanx, although that is scarily different to previous translations i have been given. could you give me some feedback on this translation on how accurate it is "QUID IN VITA FACIMUS, AETERNE RESONAT"
 

Andy

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Actually, what you posted means: What in life we do, resounds eternally, not in eternity. The '-e' ending in aeternus modifies it into an adverb. No biggie here, just that if you want a precisely literal translation:

Quod in vita facimus, in aeternitate sonat

Sonat here has a special usage:
sono, sonare, sonavi, sonatus V (1st) 1 1 [DXXAO]
|echo/resound; be heard, sound; be spoken of (as); celebrate in speech;
 

QMF

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I like my use of the nymph better ;)
Oh, I also thought you put "afterlife" instead of eternity.
Mine literally means:
Echo cries out our deeds in life in Erebus (the underworld).
 

Andy

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Yeah, I saw that. Very nice! You've a little poetic flair, don't you?
 

QMF

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I suppose :)
And is the subjunctive intended above (faciamus) or is that a typo?
 

Andy

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No, it's facimus. Faciamus is the subjunctive. If you used faciamus, the sentence would be: What in life may we do, echoes in eternity.

The literal translation you're asking for:

Quod in vita facimus, in aeternitate sonat
 

colemania1988

New Member

is this also correct? QUOD IN VITA FACIMUS, IN AETURNUM RESONAT? could you please state the difference between the setances, many thanx
 

QMF

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In aeternum is a prepositional phrase serving as an adverb. It literally means "into the eternal [possibly insert noun here]". In perpetuum is "into the perpetual [possibly insert noun here]" etc. Latin tends to use such phrases to refer to those ideas (my CLC book used in perpetuum as its only form of "forever", which is where I get the idea that it was common idiom)
Aeterne is an actual adverb, which Latin is not quite as fond of as English is. It would most accurately be translated as "eternally".
 
A

Anonymous

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trying to translate a quote from the movie Gladiator for a friend. This is what i have, i would appreciate any help and/or observations on this topic. Thank you in advance!

Quis Nos Operor In Vita, Refero In Infinitio

-What we do in life, echoes in eternity
 

scrabulista

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Was this what they said in the movie? I don't remember if it was all in English or not.
 

cepasaccus

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Re: Need help with a translation

What we do in life, echoes in eternity
How about:

Quid in vita facimus, aeternitatem tangit.

vale
 

Iynx

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There seems to be some confusion about what's going on here. Are we trying to translate "Quis Nos Operor In Vita, Refero In Infinitio" into English? If so, we should really be in the Latin-to-English section.

But this, as it stands, seems to me to be very poor Latin. Operor ("to busy oneself" or "to perform religious rites") is a first-person singular form. So nos ("we") cannot be its subject. Furthermore, it is strictly transitive-- so nos cannot be its object. So apart from the in vita ("in life") I can't make any sense out of the part before the comma. "Refero in infinitio could mean "I recall in infinity"-- if there were a word, infinitium, meaning "infinity", which as far as I know there is not. The nominative in question might be infnitio (in which case we might have in infinitione, or in infinionem), or infinitum (in infinito, or in infinitum). Let us suppose that in infinitio is an error for in infinito, and move on. One might expect a future tense here (referam) but that's a minor point. What will "I" recall? Quis is usually an interrogative, but it can be a relative meaning "anything that" or "anyone who". But quis can not be the object of operor, which, as I have pointed out, is intransitive-- and even if that were not the case, quis is a masculine /feminine nominative.

So we have what amounts to gibberish. But hold on, perhaps all is not lost. Is this something that someone heard in a movie? Perhaps they did not hear part of it correctly. What is the minimal emendation we might make to come up with a meaningful sentence? Maybe

Quidquam ago in vita, referam in infinito.

Not very close. So you've got me stumped.
 
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