Expert: Maria - 1/16/2010

Question
Dear Maria,

Next February it will be eight years since my brother passed away in a car-accident.
I wish to create a sort of ornament to add to his grave. I came up with the words 'Never Gone' to add to it, but since he and I shared a bigger bond with Italy (from all the holidays we spent there) than the English language, I thought it would be nice to have the words added in Latin.
Online translators come up with 'numquam absentis', but of course I'm afraid they merely provide a literal translation.

So I was wondering if you would be so kind as to provide me with either the correct translation, or perhaps a better alternative: the way it would be said in Latin.

That being said, I did read the information right above this form, and I feel I must be honest and admit that this translation might eventually be perpetuated in a back-tattoo. At this point it's merely an idea I might pursue in the future, though, so the main reason is the ornament for my brother's grave.

I still hope you'll be willing to grant me my request.

Kindest regards from Amsterdam,

Gijs

Answer
Hello Gijs,

The correct Latin phrase for “Never Gone” is “Numquam absens” just in the sense that your brother has never gone  away, but he is always with you in spirit, thanks to your close bond of affection.

Anyway you could say also:

-“Mecum semper” literally meaning “Always with me”.
or
-“Semper eris mecum memorique haerebis in ore” (You will always be with me and you will dwell upon my mindful lips),  as we read in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, book X, line 204.


That being said, I’ve appreciated your honesty, but I do hope you don’t use any of the above Latin phrases for the dangerous practice of tattooing I really don’t like, as I wrote.

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-NUMQUAM = never
-ABSENS (nominative case) = absent /gone

As for ABSENTIS, it is wrong simply because it is the genitive case, not the nominative you must use in this context.
________________________________________________________________________________________________

-MECUM (composed by the preposition CUM meaning “with”  plus the ablative ME )= with me
-SEMPER= always
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-SEMPER = always
-ERIS (future tense of SUM, I am)= you will be
-MECUM (see above) =with me
-MEMORIQUE (composed by the ablative MEMORI meaning “mindful” plus the enclitic conjunction –QUE meaning “and”)= and ....upon my mindful
-HAEREBIS (future of HAEREO which takes the ablative ORE) = you will dwell
-ORE (ablative of OS,meaning” mouth”/”lips”) = lips

As you can see, 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

The Roman poet Ovid was born in 43 BC and died in  17 AD.