"My Eternal Love"

[Anonymous]

Can somebody translate "my eternal love" into Latin for me? I can find all of the words, but I'm not sure in which order they go in or with what endings. I've been searching both books and online, and most commonly I've found:

my: meus
love: amor
eternal: aeternus

There were a couple other words for eternal as well, which I would definitely be open to. My problem is... should it be "amor aeternus", with "love" coming before "eternal" and also should "aeternus" be "aeternae"? And where does "meus" fit in at all?

Any help will be *greatly* appreciated!

 

[cinefactus]

You could just say

amor meus aeternus
(my eternal love)

or perhaps
amor meus in aeterno (my love forever)

 

[QMF]

The word order doesn't actually matter in Latin. It really just dictates emphasis. For instance, if you want to emphasize that it is your love that is being referred to, you might put meus at the beginning. If you want to emphasize that it is eternal, you might put aeternus at the beginning. Cinefactus' rendering is the "neutral" one, however.

But Cinefactus, isn't the idiom "in aeternum"?

 

[cinefactus]

But Cinefactus, isn't the idiom "in aeternum"?

I can remember this coming up before, but I couldn't remember what the conclusion was

The OLD only had one example with in (that I found anyway!), which was: "in aeterno praeteriti temporis spatio"

Both the OLD & L&S do have some with 'aeterno' as an adverb, eg
aeterno falsum iurare puellis di concedunt

L&S does however have 'in aeternum' with references from the Vulgate. Could this be a later turn of phrase perhaps?

It does seem though that you are fairly safe using it without a preposition...

 

[kmp]

We've been through the "eternal" thing before. I actually learned something. You can have:

in aeternum
aeternum
aeterno

I don't know about "in aeterno" though. (Though I'm sure an ancient Roman would know what you meant).

 

[Anonymous]

Thank all of you so much! You're all really so helpful and it's so nice of you to respond to all of these posts.

One more thing: if I just wanted to say "eternal love" I would say "amor aeternus"?

Oh, and also, in response to quemquem me facis's helpful post about word order: I do want to emphasize that it is *my* love I am referring to, more so than the fact that it is eternal. I want to use "love" as a noun or maybe even an endearment kind of like the British do - I'm pretty sure they don't do that in Latin however, haha, so I'm open to any suggestions. In this case then, *would* it make more sense to put "meus amor eternus", with "meus" going first?

Thank you all again!

 

[kmp]

nElizabeth550, I think you've got the hang of it.

amor aeternus = eternal love

meus amor aeternus = my eternal love.

 

[cinefactus]

I want to use "love" as a noun or maybe even an endearment kind of like the British do - I'm pretty sure they don't do that in Latin however, haha, so I'm open to any suggestions.

Apparently 'amor' was used concretely to describe ones lover, but usually in the plural (amores). I don't know if this plural refers to one lover or multiple ones though

FWIW, the Song of Solomon uses 'dilectus' where the KJV uses, 'beloved'. (Assuming you are talking about a male lover!)

 

[QMF]

One lover...citation:
VARVS me meus ad suos amores
uisum duxerat e foro otiosum,
scortillum, ut mihi tum repente uisum est,
non sane illepidum neque inuenustum,
huc ut uenimus, incidere nobis
sermones uarii, in quibus, quid esset
iam Bithynia, quo modo se haberet,
et quonam mihi profuisset aere.
-Carmina 10.1-8

In short, "ad suos amores" and "scortillum" (admittedly not a very pleasant description) refer to the same entity.

 

[kmp]

as qmf says Latin usually uses amores (plural) to refer to a sweetheart (singular)

But my dictionary also gives amor in the singular as "object of love or affection" and cites Suetonius talking about Titus - amor et deliciae generis humani.

so you could have :

meus amor aeternus = my eternal love/darling

Here you get the same double meaning as in English - love and object of love

or

mei amores aeterni = my eternal darling/sweetheart.

which narrows it down to just object of love.

Funny how Latin likes to put endearments into the plural - amores - deliciae

 

[Anonymous]

Once again, thank you all very much for the help!

Just to clarify, as this is important:

I've decided to just narrow it down to "eternal love", which I've been told the translation is

"amor aeternus"

but I just want to verify. I saw previous threads in which the ending of "aeternus" was debated and also one which said something about "love" being a masculine concept which also affected the ending? So, to give more context, I am female (I don't know if that changes the translation) and the "eternal love" being referred to is a lost pet (also female).

Just one last check, and thank you everyone so much for all of your helpful input!

 

[kmp]

amor aeternus is fine. It doesn't make any difference that you are female.