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Fri 20 Jan, 2006 01:07 pm
My rugby club has a motto that we would like translated into Latin...any help would be sincerely appreciated. It is a quote from the Gates of Fire describing the Spartans stand against the Persians....
"A Beast of One Blood and Heart"
I understand that this will likely need to be loosely translated, but your efforts and assistance is most helpful.
Bestia una in sanguine corporeque
George,
Ccould you give me help translating to Latin, "Know your enemy"?
Would "Teneo vestri hostilis" work also? I looked them up online at one of those translation websites. However, they are by single words only and I was afraid they wouldn't be correct in a senetence.
Here are the differences:
"Teneo" means "I hold". It can also mean "I know" in same way that in English "I grasp" can mean "I know". To change the form from the first person singular indicative to the imperative, use "tene" (singular) or "tenete" (plural).
Skipping to "hostilis", that differs from "inimicum" in that "hostilis" refers to a public enemy, whereas "inimicum" refers to a personal enemy.
The word "vestri" means "your", but is plural.
Note that "hostilis" is nominative (as if the subjective of a sentence), but in this case it should be accusative (because is is the object).
Having said all that, my translation assumed that the speaker is addressing one person and referred to a singular, personal enemy.
Let's translate other possibilities:
First let's use the words I suggested:
1) Addressing more than one person:
Noscete inimicos vestres.
Then, let's use the words you researched, but using the appropriate forms:
1) Addressing one person:
Tene hostilem tuum.
2) Addressing more than one person:
Tenete hostiles vestres.
Hope this helps!
That helped out volumes! Your initial translation, "Nosce inimicum tuum", is usage I was looking for. Thanks George you're fantastic!
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