Expert: Maria - 1/5/2010

Question
Hello. I am trying to get an accurate translation for
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner."
I want to put it on a plaque for my grandfather as he said it all the time.  I would be deeply appreciative if you can help.  Thank you.  

Answer
Hello,

here’s the translation you asked me:

-“Domine Iesu Christe, Dei Fili, miserere mei, peccatoris” as well as “Domine Iesu Christe, Dei Fili, miserere mei, qui sum peccator”, if “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner" is said by a male person.

-“Domine Iesu Christe, Dei Fili, miserere mei, peccatricis” as well as “Domine Iesu Christe, Dei Fili, miserere mei, quae sum peccatrix”, if “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner" is said by a female person.

See below for grammatical analysis.

All the best,
Maria
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Note that:

-Lord = DOMINE (vocative of DOMINUS, 2nd.declension)

-Jesus = IESU (vocative of IESUS, 2nd.declension)

-Christ = CHRISTE(vocative of CHRISTUS, 2nd.declension)

-Son = FILI (vocative of FILIUS, 2nd.declension)

-of God = DEI (genitive of DEUS, 2nd.declension)

-have mercy = MISERERE (2nd.person singular, imperative of the deponent verb MISEREOR which takes the genitive case MEI)

-on me = MEI (genitive of the 1st.person pronoun, depending on the imperative MISERERE)

-the sinner = PECCATORIS (genitive of the masculine noun PECCATOR related to the genitive MEI) / PECCATRICIS ((genitive of the feminine  noun PECCATRIX related to the genitive MEI) / QUI SUM PECCATOR in the masculine/QUAE SUM PECCATRIX in the feminine, both literally meaning “who am a sinner”.


Note that Latin  word order can be different from English simply because in Latin syntactical relationships are indicated by the endings, not by the order of the words.