Suggestions for Latin album title

dcv

New Member

Hi Latin lovers,

I am a composer that no one ever heard, working on two sets of songs for piano and voice. The first set, with Latin title, "Carmen Nihilo" was released as an album recently (check it out on Spotify etc. it's nice). Now I am preparing to release the second set and need some suggestions for an album title. Here are the requirements:

First, it should match, in meaning and form, the title of the first album, "Carmen Nihilo" (A song/chant/poem of nothing). I strongly prefer the format "Carmen X", but feel free to suggest otherwise. Ideally it should be a short phrase.

Secondly, as the first album does, the song titles here make up a poem. So the album title should also be a suitable title for this poem. The song titles/poem goes like this:

I am
A space between words
In a story with no plot (*)
Humming in a daydream
A humorous requiem
From the end of time
For everything alive
That once was

Side note: I am willing to change the line marked with * to (possibly vaguely) match the latin title of the album. So "a story with no plot" might as well be "a poem with no meaning". But this bit is very optional.

As you see, the poem is about a person who regards himself (and everything else) as highly insignificant. He projects himself to the distant future and reminisces, with impartial nostalgia, of all life, language, culture, civilization that once existed - but no longer does.
So we are going for existential, nihilistic keywords for the latin title: "song(s)? of decay, deterioration, corrosion, erosion, time, entropy, nostalgia, insignificance, death, annihilation, silence etc."

What do you think? Thanks in advance!
 
 

Terry S.

Aedilis

  • Aedilis

  • Patronus

Location:
Hibernia
Carmen neminis? Song of No One
Carmina neminis? Songs of No One
 

dcv

New Member

I like Carmen Neminis a lot. Thanks very much for this suggestion. A quick question: In English "of" can describe multiple things. Song of x might mean "song composed by x", or it might mean "song that is owned by x", or it might mean "song that is about the subject or feeling of x". Does the latin phrase also convey all these meanings?

A second question: when I type this in google translate it translates this as "a song is no one". This is just google doing a shitty job as usual, right? i.e. no need for a possessive suffix/case on "Carmen".
 

EstQuodFulmineIungo

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Don't bother with G.T. It doesn't give you translations.
You could also say carmen nullius as an alternative. Since it recalls the legal expression for occupation (res nullius) in can also be interpreted as a song that, being nobody's, is actually for everyone (to listen).
 

dcv

New Member

Thanks so much for all this info. How would you concisely say "song that doesn't matter" or "song that is insignificant"
 
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