Examples of mistranslations

 

cinefactus

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Found this on another site in response to a request for a translation for a tattoo:

I am very fluent in Latin, and the proper latin phrase for "This I shall Overcome" is "Ego utor mentula in meus visio".

'in visionibus meis mentulam utor' might have been more gramatically correct, but anyway...

A couple of years ago at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Latin_proverbs I found 'Bis dat, qui cito dat' translated as "He who eats young children throws up young adults"... (It has now been changed)

Caveat punctor...
 

kmp

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Doesn't utor generally take the ablative of the thing used (though the accusative is not incorrect)?

so

in visionibus meis mentula utor

would be OK as well.

I take it that visio here means dream?

On the general point of deliberate mistranslations - I think it's a cheap trick if it's actually meant to deceive.
 
 

cinefactus

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kmp dixit:
Doesn't utor generally take the ablative of the thing used (though the accusative is not incorrect)?

so

in visionibus meis mentula utor.
Yes I should have remembered that...

I think you are right on the other counts as well...
 

deudeditus

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who would write that?
I shall overcome?? pedem in culum asini qui illud scripsit ponam.
like you said... cheap trick.

that's like saying "hello, nice to meet you" in spanish is "quieres cojer? tienes buenas teclas."
 

deudeditus

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lol "me llamo puta" i hope that guy didn't get a tatoo of that trash
 
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