one life no regrets

A

Anonymous

Guest

hello i was thinking of getting a tattoo in latin and was hoping to get.

"one life no regrets"

the translation i have got is:

Una vita nulla desiderium

any help would be much appriciated.

thank you
 
I kind of like this one...nice choice.

I have simplified the construction a little because I think it flows better (and the fewer the number of times they have to stick the needle in you!)

Instead of "One life no regrets" I have transformed it to "Life without regret":

Vita Sine Paenitentia

The reason I changed it (besides saving ink!) is because unless you really want to emphasize "one", Vita by itself implies "a life" or just "life" without further qualification. If you really wanted to you could add in front of it "Una" or "Unica" to emphasize one/single/unique...but as I said I think the construction above is best (especially since Paenitentia is such a long word.

A word of note though, the word Paenitentia, which means regret, kind of implies regret for a wrongdoing (you can actually see the modern word penitence evolves from the Latin form here) as opposed to say just regret for one's choices in general, which I gather is the theme you are aiming for. Unfortunately, I cannot find another form of regret that is different. This is a common problem in Latin. We just ran into it earlier this week with the word for pride, which also implies someting negative. In all cases, I wouldn't worry about it for the theme of your tattoo all that much, I just wanted to let you know.

I hope this helps, and with all my suggestions...get a second opinion here before committing to skin!

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Edit: I forgot to address the translation you suggested. The definition that I have for desiderium is desire/longing/want/requirement; desire/grief/regret for dead/absent/loss. I'm not sure that is the definition of regret that you are looking for. Using nulla is fine I think, but if you do use desiderium you would have to change nulla to nullum since desiderium is a neuter noun, it needs the neuter form of the adjective.

-Severus
 

Andy

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Perhaps an alternative would do:

Vita [una] sine luctibus
or
Vita sine maeroribus

Which basically mean: Life without sorrows or lamentations.
 

Marius Magnus

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Location:
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I would go ahead and make that una vita to emphasize "one". I'm pretty sure that's the intent here; one of those "You only live once" types of phrases.
 
Andy dixit:
Perhaps an alternative would do:

Vita [una] sine luctibus
or
Vita sine maeroribus

Which basically mean: Life without sorrows or lamentations.
ooh, I like both of this Andy!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest

thank you for your help I was thinking of:

una vita sine paenitentia

is that right thanks again for all your help.
 

Andy

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Urbs Panamae
lukey66 dixit:
thank you for your help I was thinking of:

una vita sine paenitentia

is that right thanks again for all your help.
Yup, that works. :D
 
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