Ars longa, vita brevis - how to modify?

March 12, 2012 3:34 PM

Latin-speakers! I'm writing an article about the short-lived nature of media today and I'm hoping to repurpose "Ars longa, vita brevis," either switching ars and vita (i.e. life is long and art is short), or having both be ars (i.e. art is both long and short). I'm not at all sure this can be done while retaining the essential four-word structure of the saying. Does "ars longa, ars brevis" work? Do I need "est" in there (I'd rather not)? Do I need to change the declension?
posted by BlackLeotardFront to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

Best answer: Either of your suggestions work and should be easily understood! Go nuts!
posted by grobstein at 4:00 PM on March 12, 2012

Response by poster: I'm worried about the grammar, you're sure the construction is correct?

Ars longa, ars brevis
Ars brevis, vita longa

either of those works? I thought there might be a single/plural problem, but maybe that's just my english-speaking mind making mistakes for me.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:09 PM on March 12, 2012

Best answer: Ars and vita are both feminine singular nouns. So any adjective form that agrees with one will agree with the other. Ars brevis, vita longa is totally okay as far as I can see.
posted by nebulawindphone at 4:34 PM on March 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Excellent, thanks guys!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:41 PM on March 12, 2012