I have just been playing around with Google Translator’s Latin translator, trying to come up with a couple of mottos for the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission. I can’t say I like it’s style very much. If you don’t know any latin the chances are you will get very bad vocabulary choices trying to do English into Latin.
Any way, here are two I have come up with so far. Let me know how you would phrase these better:
Discrimen nullum; colloquimur cuiquam
(“We’re not fussy; we’ll talk to anyone”)
Cenare et bibere propter pacem et concordiam
(“Eating and drinking our way to peace and harmony”)
If you have a suggestion for “We’re happy to dance with you so long as you don’t mind us stepping on your toes”, I reckon that could be a good motto too…
A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi – A precipice in front, wolves behind (between a rock and a hard place)
Ad augusta per angusta – To high places by narrow roads
Ad maiorem dei gloriam (AMDG) – For the greater glory of God
Age. Fac ut gaudeam – Go ahead. Make my day!
Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri? – (At a barbeque) Ever noticed how wherever you stand, the smoke goes right into your face?
Appareo Decet Nihil Munditia? – Is It Not Nifty?
Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit – The fellow is either mad or he is composing verses. (Horace)
Brevis esse latoro obscurus fio – When I try to be brief, I speak gobbledegook [one for Gareth!]
Canis meus id comedit – My dog ate it
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules – If I were you, I wouldn’t walk in front of any catapults
Certe, toto, sentio nos in kansate non iam adesse – You know, Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore
Credo elvem etiam vivere – I believe Elvis lives
Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo! – Make me chaste and pure, but not yet!
Deo adiuvante – With God’s help
Deo favente – With God’s favour
Duc, sequere, aut de via decede – Lead, follow, or get out of the way
De gustibus non est disputandum – There’s no accounting for taste
Something for everyone at Latin Quotes and Latin Phrases.
;-)
Under your picture on the sidebar, there’s something in Latin. I thought “wonder what that says” and threw it into Google Translate. I got:
We sinners sin, but among the Raving and frantic Among the
and thought, that’s complete nonsense. I suspected you might be crazy, but you don’t normally write gibberish and I do know how statistical translation works, so I experimented. Noticing the capital Raving and Among, I decided to drop all the capital letters except the first, yielding:
Sin, but among sinners, and between the mad mad
Hm. I can make sense out of that. But I decided to add a fullstop at the end:
Sin, but among sinners, and among the insane, mad.
Hm. I suspect the last translation is probably an exact translation from amongst parallel texts.
“The meat may have gone bad, but at least the vodka’s still good.” (Probably the only bit of a homily I’ve ever remembered, from back when I was an altar server.)
I forgot to say that in the end, it turns out you actually *are* crazy (or claim to be). Fancy that! Perhaps the first translation is the best after all. :)
I reckon it’s “a sinner among sinners, and a madman among madmen”.
For a bonus point, could it possibly be from Horace?
I don’t know if Horace said it, but that is what I meant when I said it.
Hours of fun for the whole family!
(For your first motto I get: “Delicatis non sumus; loquemur cuiquam.”)
And for the second: “Pacem et concordiam per cibum et potum.”
Well, as a Latin major, I’ll give a shot at this one:
We’re happy to dance with you so long as you don’t mind us stepping on your toes
Gaudium nobis est vobiscum saltare dummodo non referat vobis nos offendere digitos.
Wow! Thanks for that, Kyle – but it doesn’t really roll of the tongue, does it?! I will stick with my first two mottos. Do they look okay to you?
Haha. Not at all mellifluous. You’re mottos look fine but I would probably use ‘fastidium’ rather than ‘discrimen’ and to capture the idea of ‘our way to’ it would probably be better to say ‘usque ad…’ .
I think it’s ironic that in correcting Latin grammar, I make such a basic mistake in English grammar.
Nil bickeratum toleratum