Latin translation needed

June 10, 2009 3:26 AM

Hi, Can anyone help us translate the following into Latin for our wedding ring inscription? "Never to be parted" Any help will be much appreciated!
posted by shabba300 to writing & language (12 comments total)

I think "nusquam" (never) will serve you well to start with. The "to be parted" part has a specific inflection in Latin, but I forgot what it's named.
posted by NekulturnY at 3:41 AM on June 10

Semper fidelis has the sense of what you mean, but expressed the other way around - it literally means "always faithful" but is a long-established and widely used Latin motto, which you may prefer over a translation that is literal but has been coined from scratch.

As a literal translation you could use nusquam separatus or nusquam disiunctus, both of which would mean never separated or never parted.
posted by greycap at 3:51 AM on June 10

I think you want the gerundive: nusquam separandi, 'never to be divided'. (The -i is plural, assuming what you want not to be separated is the couple.)
posted by zompist at 4:05 AM on June 10

Semper fidelis does have some military connotations in English, it being the motto of the Marines (or the Navy Seals, or who knows what kind of elite muscled frogmen).
posted by NekulturnY at 7:21 AM on June 10 [1 favorite]

Have you thought about just doing English? It's a poetic phrasing already, and since you don't understand Latin, I'm not sure why you would like that better.
posted by smackfu at 9:05 AM on June 10 [2 favorites]

> Semper fidelis has the sense of what you mean, but expressed the other way around - it literally means "always faithful" but is a long-established and widely used Latin motto, which you may prefer over a translation that is literal but has been coined from scratch.

This is a very bad idea, because Semper fidelis is indelibly associated with the US Marine Corps (note that that information is in the lead paragraph of the Wikipedia article on the phrase). I agree with smackfu: put it in English. If you're intent on Latin, for Pete's sake get a translation from a real expert (a Latin professor or grad student in the language), don't depend on some half-assed guess on MetaFilter. I hate to be a broken record about this, but people who have to qualify their responses with caveats about their memory or brief study should not be trying to answer translation questions.
posted by languagehat at 9:33 AM on June 10 [1 favorite]

dear old languagehat, please not to be grumpy at us mere mortals enjoying a quarter of an hour in the company of our high school latin. Memories of girls in bloom and us awkward and silly. I believe one can qualify ones responses with caveats and still give it ones best shot, what?
posted by NekulturnY at 11:11 AM on June 10

The gerundive would probably work, though the translation would be confusing, since gerundives generally connote something that should happen in the future (for example the name Amanda translates literally as "one deserving to be loved").

So "nusquam separandi" would be "never deserving to be separated", or something like that. Awkward.

Why not take out the negative and go with this: fidelitas integra? It's actually borrowed from the Roman Latin marriage rites (see here, though you'll have to search on "fidelitátem íntegram" to find it). Translated it means "unbroken loyalty", or "sound faithfulness", or something to that effect. The point is that it is a historically appropriate Latin phrase with a meaning that is more or less what you're looking for.
posted by hiteleven at 1:07 PM on June 10

Nusquam is not 'never'. Nusquam is 'nowhere'. 'Never' is numquam.

It sounds to me like you're echoing the traditional wedding statement from Matthew 16:9 -- quod ergo Deus coniunxit homo non separet ("What God has joined together let no man put asunder")?

If so, 'homo non separet' would be a traditional Latin phrase it might be useful to have in Latin.

If you're really set on a translation of 'never to be parted', then, as mentioned above, the gerundive is the way to go. It's not, in fact, awkward, but rather quite the best way to express that phrase in Latin, IMO.

If you are not a lesbian couple, numquam separandi would be fine. (Otherwise, it would be numquam separandae.)
posted by lysimache at 7:50 PM on June 10

Surely a much more appropriate construction would be to use the imperative (v forceful) or better the subjunctive - that's really the way to go, the gerundive seems such an anglicised solution?

Actually the quote I think of is this from the Latin Vulgate
"amabiles et decori in vita sua in morte quoque non sunt divisi" 2 Samuel 1: 23
They were lovely and pleaant in their lives and in death they were not divided.

Of course, Saul and Jonathan were father and son.
posted by boudicca at 12:55 AM on June 11

Nusquam is not 'never'. Nusquam is 'nowhere'. 'Never' is numquam.

That's what was nagging me. Nusquam was the first word that entered my mind. I googled it and the first resulst were: 'nowhere,..., never'. Are they both used, or are the internets wrong about this?
posted by NekulturnY at 1:52 AM on June 11

That's what was nagging me. Nusquam was the first word that entered my mind. I googled it and the first resulst were: 'nowhere,..., never'. Are they both used, or are the internets wrong about this?

Lewis and Short (one of the standard scholarly Latin dictionaries), which is accessible online through the Perseus Project, is the place to go for questions like that. And no, nusquam does not mean 'never':

nowhere, in no place; On no occasion, nowhere, in nothing;no whither, to no place; To or for nothing

Citations, etc., cut.
posted by lysimache at 4:20 PM on June 11