Abutebaris modo subjunctivo denuo...

September 13, 2007 8:15 PM

I need a very short note translated into Latin, can you help me?

For a scene in my YA novel, I need the following simple note from a seventeen-year-old girl to her mother rendered into Latin:

"I went swimming with David. I might end up spending the night, so I took my kit with me just in case. I'll see you in the morning."

-This doesn't need to be a grammatically exact nor stylistically elegant translation. The daughter probably wrote this standing up at the kitchen table, occasionally glancing in a pocket Latin dictionary she keeps in her purse, while David waited impatiently.

-I kept the phrasing of the note simple to allow you to reword it as you see fit. That is, if it's easier to say "I went swimming at David's house," or to split the second sentence into two, go right ahead. "David" can be substituted with "my friend" or "the neighbor."

-"Kit" refers to her glucose meter and her insulin, though I'd like to keep this vague at the moment. (Darn those Latin-fluent young adults, always getting spoilers about a character's diabetes!) You can turn this word into anything resembling "kit."

Gratias ago tibi!

posted by Ian A.T. to writing & language (7 comments total)

Me again. I feel obligated to point out that the "forced to write notes to her Classicist mother in Latin" detail I've just revealed is a miniscule plot point of one of the book's minor characters. Don't worry, fellow MeFites: in The War On Quirk, I'm on the side of the angels.
posted by Ian A.T. at 8:16 PM on September 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

you articulated your question impeccably, delineating the idiom like you should. Unfortunately, you're about to get a lot of noise and little signal. Get the most plausible answers evaluated by a local classicist-- there are a lot of people here who make weak stabs at translation and pretend they're authoritative.

(I have a classics background, but an answer isn't worth the pile-on from people who don't-- if I'm even slightly ambiguous and another classics person disagrees, mob mentality takes over. A bunch of people who have no business replying will seize on the disagreement and insist that I'm a definitive fraud. AskMe is USELESS for translation until a native speaker chimes in around comment 25. Obviously, Latin has no native speakers, so you're about to get 25 versions of a babelfish translation, defended by people who skimmed the wikipedia entry for "Latin". Good luck!)
posted by Mayor Curley at 9:54 PM on September 13, 2007 [3 favorites]

Well, here's my own quick, occasionally-glancing-at-my-Latin-dictionary version. I'm quite sure it's neither grammatically exact nor stylistically elegant, but I do think it's along the lines of what you're looking for. "Res" just means "things", which seems closest to your intended vague meaning, but everything else is pretty transparent. (I certainly don't claim to be authoritative, but I have studied Latin, and think this is a pretty good stab at it...)

Abivi cum Davide ut natemus. Fortasse apud eum pernoctem, itaque res meas mecum tuli. Mane te videam.
posted by not me at 10:19 PM on September 13, 2007

Oops, I forgot the "just in case", which is a bit harder to translate directly. Here it is again, with that part:

Abivi cum Davide ut natemus. Fortasse apud eum pernoctem, itaque res meas mecum tuli, si forte necesse sint. Mane te videam.

A literal-ish translation would be something like "I went with David to swim. I might spend the night with him, so I brought my things with me, in case I need them. I'll see you tomorrow morning."
posted by not me at 10:38 PM on September 13, 2007

I am not a native speaker, but I have read a fair amount of Latin. I would say for your stated purpose, not me's translation is just about perfect. I would possibly change "res", "things". Res is very non-specific and might not communicate to her mother what she meant.

If this random Latinization is something the mother & daughter do often, the two might have come up with faux-Latin for her diabetic supplies kit, or use a standard Latin word inappropriately e.g. "pharetram", "quiver" (if she's got needles with her).

"Medicamen", "medication", would obviously give something away. "Marsupium" is what you'll get if you look up purse or bag, but again, vague if she's trying to specifically indicate that she's got her insulin. "Mensoris" will give you "measurer", specific enough to tell her mother she's got her meter, without giving anything away to the reader other than that something is being measured.
posted by fidelity at 9:11 AM on September 14, 2007

Guys, thank you SO MUCH for your help. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Not Me: Awesome job, thank you. My email's in my profile...drop me a line, I'd like to send you something like a reimbursement for your work. Do you have an Amazon WishList? I know we probably shouldn't be bribing other MeFites to answer our questions, but I feel like you went above and beyond what's expected on AskMe--that is, you performed a service instead of just providing information--and I'd like to show you my appreciation.

Fidelity: Thank you, too, for the confirmation and your thoughtful suggestions. "Quiver" is particularly clever; so much so I feel a bit uncomfortable passing it off as my own brainstorm.

One final question, if you don't mind: of the words you suggested, are they in the correct form they need to be in to replace Res in the context of the sentence?

That is, can I just take Not Me's superb work and swap out Res with either Pharetram, Medicamen, Marsupium, or Mensoris? Or will I need to use declensions and conjugations and other Latin things?

Sorry to be so vague...though I took four years of Latin in college, my retention of any of it is close to nothing. (What's the old line? "One is not truly educated until he has forgotten his Latin.") Studying Latin was a way for me to engage in the sterotypical trappings of an intellectual without actually doing the work necessary to become one. I also listened to classical and played a lot of chess. Christ, what an asshole.

I wish I could say that this was an adolescent phase that I quickly matured out of and I eventually became a serious scholar, but no. Somewhere around the beginning of my junior year, I set my youngish Latin professor up with my grad-student ex-girlfriend, and I knew I never had to open my Latin textbook again. Look upon me, I'll show you the life of the mind...
posted by Ian A.T. at 1:20 PM on September 14, 2007

You're very welcome. I enjoy translation, and it's not every day that I get a chance to translate something from English into Latin...

The adjective "my" will need to match the form of the noun you pick, so in place of "res meas" you could use "pharetram meam", "medicamen meum", "marsupium meum", or "mensorem meum". Those are all really good suggestions for ways to tweak Latin into a modern context--I especially like "quiver" and "measurer".

You certainly don't need to reimburse me, but it is always fun to get a little something in the mail. I don't think I have an email address in my profile, so I'll send you a note in a couple minutes. Maybe you can send me a copy of the book when it's done?
posted by not me at 10:37 PM on September 14, 2007