Expert: Maria - 7/13/2008

Question
May the words spoken by the light of this fire be of love, liberty, and laughter.

Wisdom seldom flows from an angry mouth.

Answer
Hello,

Here are the translations you asked me:

-“Utinam amoris, libertatis, risus sint verba quae huius sub luce foci  dicuntur”
[May the words spoken by the light of this fire be of love, liberty, and laughter]

-“Ex ira raro oritur sapientia “ (literally, “No wisdom proceeds from wrath”)
[Wisdom seldom flows from an angry mouth]

Regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-May = UTINAM (it takes the subjunctive SINT)
-the words = VERBA (neuter plural, 2nd.declension)
-spoken = QUAE DICUNTUR (literally, ‘which are  uttered’)
-by = SUB (preposition which takes the ablative)
-the light = LUCE (ablative of LUX, 3rd.declension)
-of this = HUIUS (genitive of HIC, ‘this’)
-fire = FOCI (genitive of FOCUS, ‘fire’)
-be =SINT (subjunctive of SUM)
-of love = AMORIS (genitive of AMOR, 3rd.declension)
-liberty = LIBERTATIS ( genitive of LIBERTAS, 3rd.declension)
-and laughter = RISUS (genitive, 4th.declension)


-Wisdom = SAPIENTIA (nominative case, 1st.declension)
-seldom = RARO (adverb)
-flows = ORITUR (from ORIOR, deponent verb)
-from = EX (preposition which takes the ablative)
-an angry mouth = IRA (ablative). Latin uses the word IRA (wrath) instead of “angry mouth”.

As you can see, Latin word order is different from English just because Latin is an inflected language where syntactical relationships are indicated by the endings, not by the order of the words.