Thursday, June 05, 2008

Attempts at Latin #1

I saw a signature in the Catholic Answers Forum: "Put your faith into others". I thought it was a clever play on "Put your faith in others"; instead of meaning "depend upon others", it becomes "give your faith to others".

So here is my attempt at writing, in Latin, "Do not put your faith in men: put your faith into men."

(You, singular) Non pone fidem tuam in hominibus, pone fidem tuam intra homines!
(You, plural) Non ponite fidem vestram in hominibus, pone fidem vestram intra homines!

I like it because it is repetitive, although I also have two shorter versions. Here's one shorter way ("Do not put your faith in men, but into men"):

(You, singular) Non pone fidem tuam in hominibus, at intra homines!
(You, plural) Non ponite fidem vestram in hominibus, at intra homines!

And finally, "... but into them":

(You, singular) Non pone fidem tuam in hominibus, at intra eos!
(You, plural) Non ponite fidem vestram in hominibus, at intra eos!

The verb ponere means "to place or put", and pone/ponite is the 2nd person imperative (singular/plural). The phrase fidem tuam/vestram means "your faith", and is in the accusative (because it is the object of the verb). The phrase in hominibus means "in men"; hominibus is in the ablative, as the preposition in requires. The phrase intra homines means "inside/within men"; homines is the accusative, as the preposition intra requires. The conjunction at means "but, on the other hand, on the contrary"; the pronoun eos is the third person accusative masculine plural ("them").

2 comments:

Cliff Notes said...

I prefer "Ne fidem tuam in hominibus poneas, pon autem fidem tuam intra homines" pl. ne ...poneatis.

Jeffrey Pinyan said...

I don't recognize any of those verb forms ("pon", "poneas", or "poneatis").

And what did Pope Benedict do on June 6th that made him the best ever?