You are being deceived

[GoktimusPrime]

You are being deceived.
If you could look outside the system, you would recognise it for what it is: a prison full of willing prisoners.
Be happy in your work, they say, for it enriches you.
Be thankful for the system – it protects you.
Be mindful of your betters – they think for you.
I say enough.
Reject your work.
Resist the system.
And your ‘betters’?
You have none.
We are all equal.

This is the full version of Megatron's "call to arms" which founded the Decepticon movement on Cybertron in Transformers. BIG THANKS!

 

[Abbatiſſæ Scriptor]

DECEPTI ESTIS
SI EXTRA ORDINEM VIDERE POSITIS VIDERITIS VT VERE EST: CARCER CARCERATORVM VOLENTVM

 

[Pacifica]

That isn't quite correct. To start with, "you are being deceived" = decipimini (if the "you" is plural, which seems likely). Decepti estis means "you have been deceived" or "you were deceived" rather than "you are being deceived".

I think the difficulty here is translating "system". Maybe ordo (the word used by Abbatissae Scriptor) isn't that bad, but it deserves reflection, I guess.

I'll be back later.

 

[GoktimusPrime]

Thanks for the replies - I look forward to see what the whole thing might look like if possible.

So would the opening line be, decipimini estis or just decipimini (without "estis")?

 

[Dantius]

Just decipimini.

 

[GoktimusPrime]

Gratias tibi ago

 

[Pacifica]

What do others think about the translation of "system"?

 

[Callaina]

What do others think about the translation of "system"?

Probably "political system" is what's meant here, so maybe res publica?

 

[Pacifica]

I don't know. To me "system" evokes the way things are managed rather than the things managed.

 

[Callaina]

I don't know. To me "system" evokes the way things are managed rather than the things managed.

I would've thought that's what res publica implied: the political order that manages things.

 

[Callaina]

Systema also exists as a Latin word, though it's rare.

 

[Pacifica]

I would've thought that's what res publica implied: the political order that manages things.

No, res publica is literally "the public matter" (so all that belongs to the public, the whole state and interests thereof) not the way it is managed.

Systema also exists as a Latin word, though it's rare.

Also, I don't know if it could be applied to this sort of system.

 

[Pacifica]

So far I can't think of anything better than ordo. Of course its meaning is broader than that of English "system" in this context, and I suppose that if one wanted to make it absolutely clear what was meant, one would have to further qualify it with some definition-like phrase, but that might make the translation unwieldy, I guess. Let's first see if Goktimus feels it would be acceptable if "system" were translated with a word meaning literally "order"?

 

[AoM]

I guess ratio is just as broad.

 

[Pacifica]

Ratio occurred to me as well, but that would absolutely need some further qualifying phrase.

 

[GoktimusPrime]

Ordo seems fine.

What Megatron and the Decepticons were initially rising against was the brutally oppressive Autobot regime with institutionalised apartheid and anyone caught even thinking against the Autobots were arrested, tortured and sometimes even physically and mentally mutilated.

 

[GoktimusPrime]

Si probare possemus extra ordo veritas intellegēs?

Any help with the rest of this text? (please)

 

[Pacifica]

Si probare possemus extra ordo veritas intellegēs?

That doesn't make sense.

Any help with the rest of this text? (please)

I think this would work. Wait and see what others think of my choice of words. I'm still assuming that the "call to arms" is addressing many people collectively rather than one person or each person individually.

Decipimini.
Si extra ordinem inspicere possitis, agnoscatis, id quod est, eum esse carcerem plenum captivis volentibus.
Labore vestro gaudete, inquiunt, is enim vos locupletat.
Ordinem gratum habete—is protegit vos.
Auscultate melioribus—ii pro vobis cogitant.
Ego dico, satis est.
Abicite laborem.
Resistite ordini.
Meliores vobis autem?
Nulli sunt.
Omnes aequales sumus.

 

[GoktimusPrime]

Thanks very much. And you are correct in your assumption.

 

[Abbatiſſæ Scriptor]

Confirming, though perhaps preferring 'di(vi)tat' to 'locupleat' (which ſeems to imply a land grant).