Expert: Maria - 9/30/2010

Question
Hello,

First of all thank you so much for all that you do here.  I've spent the last 2 hours reading some of your answers.  It is really an great service that you do.  I used to work as an english/spanish interpreter and definitely appreciate the time you have taken to explain your translations.

I need the translation of a phrase and perhaps its variation if it is ok.  It will be for my epitaph.  As a child, I was always intrigued by the Latin masses I attended hence my interest in using the Latin Language.
I already had it translated by a service (which I paid for) but ran accross this wonderful website and I just want to verify the translation since a friend thought it sounded incorrect.

Death smiles upon us all; All a man can do is smile back.
Mors nobis omnibus arridet; tantum aliquis potest arridere contra

The variation is having the second phrase be just "smile back" (singular male)

so just "arridere contra"? (what I was told)

I was also wondering if you would also tell me how it would have been written in Latin.  I'm trying to stay true to the Latin Language origins for the engraving.  Again I appreciate your help.  It will not be forgotten.  

Answer
Hello,

Actually “Mors nobis omnibus arridet; tantum aliquis potest arridere contra” is correct.

The only change I would make is the word order in the second part of the sentence where it’s better to  place “arridere contra“ at the beginning and the adverb “tantum” after the verb “potest” and  thus say:

“Mors nobis omnibus arridet; arridere contra aliquis potest tantum”.

Note that the literal translation of  “Mors nobis omnibus arridet;  arridere contra aliquis potest tantum”  is : “Death smiles upon us all; One / A man can only smile back”.

As you can see, “One can only smile back “ (arridere contra aliquis potest  tantum) is slightly different from “All a man can do is smile back”, but it is absolutely correct and moreover  it sounds better than “quod aliquis facere potest  est  arridere contra“ which is the literal translation of  “All a man can do is smile back”.

See below for grammatical analysis.

As for the engraving, you can use either “Mors nobis omnibus arridet; arridere contra aliquis potest tantum” in small letters or "MORS NOBIS OMNIBUS ARRIDET.ARRIDERE CONTRA ALIQUIS POTEST TANTUM" in capital letters, just like  the Romans used to do in the earliest times, when the small letters did  not yet exist.

Best regards,
Maria
_____________________________________________________________________
Note that:

-MORS (nominative case, 3rd.declension)= death

-NOBIS (dative plural of the personal pronoun NOS, as the verb ARRIDEO takes the dative) = upon  us

-OMNIBUS (dative plural of the adjective/pronoun OMNIS, as the verb ARRIDEO takes the dative) = all

-ARRIDET (3rd.person singular, present indicative of ARRIDEO)= smiles

-ARRIDERE (infinitive mood of ARRIDEO used as a subject) = smile /to smile. Note that Latin uses the verb instead of the noun “risus” (masculine singular) meaning “smile“ as a noun.

-CONTRA (adverb) = back

-ALIQUIS (pronoun in the nominative masculine singular) = a man/ someone/one

-POTEST (3rd.person singular, present indicative of  POSSUM, I can)

-TANTUM (adverb)= only


As for the literal translation “quod aliquis facere potest  est  arridere  contra“ ( All a man can do is smile back), note that:

-QUOD (neuter of the relative pronoun QUI) = all what

-ALIQUIS (see above)

-FACERE (infinitive of FACIO)= do

-POTEST (see above)

-EST (3rd.person singular, present indicative  of SUM) = is

-ARRIDERE (see above)

-CONTRA (see above).

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