Comments on: English translation of Latin passage from "The Pit and the Pendulum."

Question: English translation of Latin passage from "The Pit and the Pendulum."

meta.mark — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:18:39 -0800

What is the english translation of the following latin passage derived from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum?" Impia tortorum longos hic turba furores Sanguinis innocui, non satiata, aluit. Sospite nunc patria, fracto nunc funeris antro, Mors ubi dira fuit vita salusque patent. [Quatrain composed for the gates of a market to he erected upon the site of the Jacobin Club House at Paris.]

I am aware that there are translations out there but I wanted to ask the metafilter community because I trust you people more. Also please include a brief explanation of how your translated and that credentials you have that qualify the credibility of your translation.

By: barnacles

barnacles — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:23:53 -0800

Granted you might trust us more, but I reckon the translation on footnote #1 on this Google Book Search results is probably pretty well-credentialed.

Unless you think Thomas Ollive Mabbott, a Poe scholar, isn't good enough.

By: Casuistry

Casuistry — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:34:57 -0800

"Nourished" rather than "cherished", maybe (though "cherished" works), and that semicolon after "demolished" should be a comma, but that linked translation is accurate.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 06:44:02 -0800

There are a lot of things for which it might make sense to trust the MeFi community, but language translation isn't one of them. People here say all kinds of stuff cheerfully, confidently, and wrongly about language. They seem to feel a need to "be helpful" even when they only have a vague acquaintance with the language in question. You've got a much, much better chance of a good translation by looking at a published book like the one barnacles linked to.