Expert: Maria - 6/14/2009

Question
Lorem ipsum dolor sit er elit lamet, consectetaur cillium adipisicing pecu, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Nam liber te conscient to factor tum poen legum odioque civiuda.

Answer
Hello,

Such a text  is nothing else but a jumble, i.e. a disorderly mass of many wrong Latin words which are the bad deformation of  an original passage we read in Cicero, "De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum”( On the Ends of Good and Evil), book 1. chapter 32 ff. and 51.(See below).

Therefore no translation is possible as this hodgepodge  could be compared with an English text like this e.g. : “you  former  want  used man and standard free go to  in fact  afterwards country.....” where the succession of the words makes no sense at all, as you can see.

In short, such a wrong Latin passage which is commonly used in publishing and graphic design  to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document or visual presentation, such as font, typography, and layout, seems to be introduced during the 1500s by a printer, who did not know the Latin language at all, and took a line of the Cicero's passage which started with "LOREM", while the previous line ended with "DO" and used it as well as the  rest of  the passage as a page of type samples  to demonstrate a font, without distracting the ordinary reader who did not usually know Latin and then would not have  spent time reading text rather than looking at the font.


In short, since then  the  Latin-like text  you quote was used to demonstrate printing layouts and came into use not long after the printing press itself. It persists in software manuals to this day.

Anyway, if you want a translation, I must repeat that it’s impossible to translate such a gibberish, while I can translate the real quotation from Cicero (see below).

Best regards,
Maria
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2-Here’s the correct  original passage  from Cicero’s On the Ends of Good and Evil , Book I, chapters 32-33 and 51:

“Neque porro quisquam est, qui DO-LOREM  ipsum, quia dolor sit, amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur?  At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus, qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti, quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint, obcaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa, qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga.. ...."
51: “quae autem tanta ex improbis factis ad minuendas vitae molestias accessio potest fieri, quanta ad augendas, cum conscientia factorum, tum poena legum odioque civium?”


-“ Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure? But we  accuse them and really  think that they deserve hate who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain ……......................”
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