Expert: Maria - 10/5/2010

Question
Hi,

I am making a travel scrapbook for a friend of mine and I was thinking it would be really neat to have the cover page say something "adventurous" on the cover in Latin. I searched everywhere for some sort of adventure quote in Latin, but I couldn't find anything, so I decided to come up with something on my own.

I was wondering if you could help me translate the following:

Adventure awaits you
Explore your world
Seek out adventure

I haven't decided which one to use yet, I'm sure it will come down to how it looks and sounds after I get them translated. :) I also wanted to ask you if you knew of any Latin quotes that talk about adventure or exploring all that is around you. I would love for it to be authentic if possible. If not then, I'd resort back to one of my three phrases.

Thanks so much for your help in advance.

Goda

Answer
Hello,

First of all I have to tell you that, even if the phrases you mention cannot be translated literally into Latin, I can suggest two Latin sentences whose sense corresponds exactly to what you say.   

Here they are:

-“Te audacter  itineri committe!” (literally,” Abandon  yourself  boldly  to journey!”,  just corresponding to “Seek out adventure “ or “Adventure awaits you”)

-“Omnia  audacter explora loca! ” ( literally, “Explore boldly all the places!”,  corresponding to “Explore your world”).

They both are correct, of course, and thus you can choose the one you like better.

As for a quotation from a Roman author, the only one I could suggest is “Audentes fortuna iuvat”  from Virgil’s Aeneid, Book 10, line 284.
Such a quotation,  literally meaning “Fortune favours the bold”,   is in fact an encouragement to seek out adventure and confront danger without fear.

Best regards,
Maria
_____________________________________________________________________
Note that:

-TE (direct object, accusative of the 2nd.person pronoun) = yourself
-AUDACTER (adverb) = boldly
-ITINERI  (dative of ITER, journey/trip)= to journey
-COMMITTE (2nd.person singular, imperative of COMMITTO) = abandon
____________________________________________________
-OMNIA (accusative neuter plural of the adjective OMNIS agreed with LOCA) = all
-AUDACTER (adverb) = boldly
-EXPLORA (2nd.person singular, imperative of EXPLORO)= Explore
-LOCA (accusative neuter plural ) =the places
_____________________________________________________________

-Fortune = FORTUNA ( subject, nominative case, 1st.declension)

-favours = IUVAT (from the verb IUVO)

-the brave = AUDENTES ( accusative masculine plural  of the adjective AUDENS)

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