Expert: Maria - 7/13/2009

Question
Hello,

I am hoping that you can help me translate a few phrases for some artwork i am working on.

The first is "May god forgive me" and or "May god have mercy on me"

The second is "I Dedicate my life to my children"

I also came across a phrase that i am finding contradicting in its translation. The phrase is "Vindicare Est Mea". What does it accurately translate to?

Thank you for any assistance in advance.  

Answer
Hello,

Here are the translations you are looking for:

-“Ignoscat mihi Deus!”
( “May God forgive me" )

-Misereat mei Deum!” or “Misereatur mei Deus”
( "May God have mercy on me")


-Meis vitam voveo liberis "
(“I Dedicate my life to my children").

As for “Vindicare est mea”, I’m sorry, but it is wrong in Latin, where the correct sentence would be “Meum est vindicare” meaning “It’s up to me to take revenge” or “It’s my  duty to punish”, according to the context  where this phrase is placed.

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-May …..forgive = IGNOSCAT (present subjunctive of IGNOSCO, I forgive. This verb  requires the dative case).

-God = DEUS (subject in the nominative case)

-me = MIHI (dative of the pronoun, as the verb IGNOSCO takes the dative)
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-May … have mercy = MISEREAT ( impersonal verb, in the present subjunctive, 3rd.person singular) / MISEREATUR (deponent verb in the present subjunctive, 3rd.person singular)

-God = DEUM (accusative of DEUS as the impersonal verb MISEREAT requires the subject in the accusative case) or DEUS (nominative as a subject of the deponent verb MISEREATUR)

-on me = MEI  (genitive of the 1st.person pronoun as both the impersonal verb and the deponent verb takes the genitive of the person on whom we have mercy ).

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-I Dedicate = VOVEO

-my life = VITAM (accusative of VITA, 1st.declension). The possessive adjective is omitted here.

-to my = MEIS (dative masculine plural  of the possessive MEUS)

-children= LIBERIS ( dative of LIBERI, 2nd.declension)
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-MEUM EST = it’s my duty / it’s up to me

-VINDICARE = to take revenge / to punish

As you can see, Latin word order is different from English.
In Latin in fact syntactical relationships are indicated by the inflexional endings, not by the order of the words.