I was going to get a tattoo saying "You only live once" in latin, but i dont want to trust an online translator because i know there not always right. The translator came up with "Vos tantum ago quondam". If there is anyone that knows how to speak latin and english that could verify if this is correct, please let me know. Thanks.
2007-10-14 21:55:00 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Semel vivis!
2007-10-15 09:35:35 · answer #1 · answered by odisseo 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
As someone who learnt Latin at school in the 40s and 50s I can say that the translation provided by the online translator is very incorrect. One mistake which another responder also falls into is to think quondam means one time. This not so. It means once in the sense "I once lived at London". It doesn't mean it in the sense of one time. This is semel. I hit him once or I lived once is semel, not quondam.Vos means you but refers to more than one person. Ago which doesn't really mean live anyway is quoted here in the first person, ie meaning I live, (that is if ago meant live. It means a lot of things, drive for example.) If I had to express this thought in some sort of Latin I might write "Homines solum semel vivunt" (men only live once) or maybe "Homines plus semel non vivunt" (men don't live more than once) but Latin is so hard, and I am so lacking in books to look things up in that I wouldn't advise you to have a tattoo made on the strength of this.
2007-10-15 09:32:13 · answer #2 · answered by David J 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Solum quondam vivis - where 'you' is singular
Solum quondam vivitis - where 'you' is plural
However, the use of 'you' in Latin epithets isn't very good.
A couple of better alternatives might be:
Vive hodie - Live today (not tomorrow)
Vive ut vivas - Live that you may live
The second could be written 'Vive vt vivas' as Latin 'v' had two pronunciations - the consonant [v] and the vowel [u].
2007-10-15 05:18:56 · answer #3 · answered by JJ 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋