Tattoo: Remember that you are moral

[Anonymous]

would that be able to be translated to "memento te mortalis esse" ?

and would to live for today be "vivo pro hodie"?

its for a tattoo so i wanted to be sure before i tattoed it and this seemed like the place to ask..

Dont want memento mori or carpe diem

The more opinions the better.

Thanks

Kiddo

 

[Bitmap]

"Remember you are mortal" literally translated is "Memento te mortalem esse"

"live for today" has been discussed in a number of threats already. Maybe I'll just add it to the sticky of frequently requested translations ...
One example is this thread: THREAD: #3711

the suggestion was "Vive in praesentia", which I consider to be a good way of putting that phrase into Latin.
I assume the suggestion you have is taken from an internet translator. Unfortunately, it doesn't make a lot of sense in Latin.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks alot for the information, i emailed the latin instituition at stockholm university and got a reply that i could use mortalis instead of mortalem...whats the difference? Cause mortalis is alot more unusual wich attracts me..

 

[George_Stanton]

...i could use mortalis instead of mortalem...whats the difference?...

In this construction "te" is accusative and so the adjective takes the accusative form
"mortalem" instead of the nominative form "mortalis".

 

[Zombye]

Thanks alot for the information, i emailed the latin instituition at stockholm university and got a reply that i could use mortalis instead of mortalem...whats the difference? Cause mortalis is alot more unusual wich attracts me..

In this case the whole construction, te mortalem esse, is a direct object of 'memento'. The direct object has to be in the accusative, so both 'te' and 'mortalem' are accusatives and have to be such.
In principle you can modify it to use nominative with infinitive instead, but you'd have to change the verb. Something like memoretur tu mortalis esse. I am not sure here.
I do not see any problem with 'Vive pro hodie', especially with 'pro+cras-tinate' getting more and more popular.

 

[Bitmap]

In principle you can modify it to use nominative with infinitive instead, but you'd have to change the verb. Something like memoretur tu mortalis esse. I am not sure here.

The NcI only works as a personal construction. "You are remembered to be mortal" would be memoraris (tu) mortalis esse

I do not see any problem with 'Vive pro hodie', especially with 'pro+cras-tinate' getting more and more popular.

Classical Latin didn't just link prepositions to adverbs. Apart from that, what does "live for today!" really mean other than "live now!" ?! "Vive hodie" sounds fine, but I don't think you can find any examples of "pro hodie" or "pro cras" in authentic texts. In procrastinare the pro- is a common prefix that you find in all sorts of verbs (proficisici, prodeo, prodesse eqs.).

 

[Anonymous]

I am new to the forums and really don't know alot of latin but if you are looking for a shorter phrase you might look at this link and see if it is more inline with your ideals:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori

 

[Anonymous]

this is awesome! Thanks everyone for the help!.. ive descided on the mortalem phrase!

Thisis forumae isis greatacea..

Thanksaem

 

[Zombye]

The NcI only works as a personal construction. "You are remembered to be mortal" would be memoraris (tu) mortalis esse

Yes, you are right.

Classical Latin didn't just link prepositions to adverbs. Apart from that, what does "live for today!" really mean other than "live now!" ?! "Vive hodie" sounds fine, but I don't think you can find any examples of "pro hodie" or "pro cras" in authentic texts. In procrastinare the pro- is a common prefix that you find in all sorts of verbs (proficisici, prodeo, prodesse eqs.).

No, it is not a classical latin, but then you don't put a tattoo for Cicero to read. Graduate students of classics may scoff, professors may shrug it off, but to other people 'vive pro hodie' would be sharper, because of the connection to 'pro+cras'. Or so I think.

 

[Chamaeleo]

No, it is not a classical latin, but then you don't put a tattoo for Cicero to read. Graduate students of classics may scoff, professors may shrug it off, but to other people 'vive pro hodie' would be sharper, because of the connection to 'pro+cras'. Or so I think.

Another way of saying the same is ‘People who understand it think it's stupid, but ignorant people can't see that it's stupid.’

Go to Engrish.com and look at all the example of people with the same attitude as you, except that the language mutilated is English. Then tell me if you still have the same view.

I'm posting because I've just seen this:

http://www.ratemyink.com/?action=ssp&pid=66943



The person thinks it means ‘to live for today’.

 

[Decimvs]

I think that "memento te mortalis esse" can work.

Wouldn't this just be an example of partitive genitive, or taken another way, of ellipsis.

Mortalis here can be a genitive. As to say, "Remember yourself to be (a person) of mortal." The same way that you can say "nihil boni" to mean 'nothing good.'

or

One could think of the sentence as "memento te mortalis esse virum", or "memento te mortalis esse hominem", with the predicate simply left out.

I think that 'memento te mortalis esse' is correct, and can be thought of as "Remember that you are (of) mortal."

 

[Bitmap]

Another way of saying the same is ‘People who understand it think it's stupid, but ignorant people can't see that it's stupid.’

Thanks for the late support

I think that "memento te mortalis esse" can work.

No, it doesn't. Virum mortalis makes as little sense in Latin as in English.
The partitive genitive is by far not that powerful. The difference is that in nihil boni a quantity is specified, which is not the case here. If it at all you would have to use the genitive plural, which can be found in collocations such as nemo mortalium (with a quantity specified again); you might get away with (memento te esse) virum mortalium, but I don't see why that phrase should be made exceptionally difficult

 

[scrabulista]

Does vivere pro hoc die work?

 

[Matthaeus]

That's a direct translation of English 'live for today', but it is uncertain whether that is Classical or whether it makes sense in the Classical.

 

[Bitmap]

I'm usually a bit hesitant with the use of pro. The original meaning is "in front of" usually implying that your back is turned to the object you're in front of (as opposed to ante, which can also mean you face the object).
From this interpretation, other meanings are derived. E.g. Pro urbe pugnare would be "to fight in front of town" - with your back turned to the town, which implies that you face the enemy who assaults the urbs. Ergo, you defend your town/ fight for your town. The implications are similar in "pro patria mori" or "orationem pro aliquo habere". I find it difficult to transfer that implication to a verb like vivere, though. Apart from, that's not really what a phrase like "Live for today" implies. "Today" is not really the beneficial object in there, is it?

 

[Imber Ranae]

I would go with vivere in diem hodiernum or in hunc diem.

 

[Matthaeus]

I just noticed that the topic has a comic typo = it should be mortal, not moral, unless we're talking about virtue here. :lol: