Expert: Maria - 10/27/2011

Question
Hi Maria,

i just want to know the Latin translation of this quote:

"Seduce my mind, you can have my body. Find my soul and i'm yours forever"



i've been meaning to ask you this but every time i visit you're away on vacation, so i've been looking it up in the internet and trying to search it work for word in your answered page. but i read in one of your answers that its not translated as it is word for word.

i'm really interested in the Latin language, i hope you can help me more. because from where i am, i cant find anyone who has knowledge in the latin language.

Thanks

Jaimee

Answer
Hello,

"Seduce my mind, you can have my body. Find my soul and I'm yours forever" can be translated as follows:

1-“Meam  illice mentem meumque poteris habere corpus. Meum inveni animum tuusque  in aeternum ero“, if the subject  of “I'm yours” is a male person.

2-“Meam  illice mentem meumque poteris  habere corpus. Meum inveni animum tuaque  in aeternum ero “,if the subject  of “I'm yours” is a female person.

Read more below.

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-Seduce = ILLICE (2nd.person singular, imperative of ILLICIO, I seduce)

-my = MEAM (accusative feminine of the possessive MEUS agreed with MENTEM)

-mind = MENTEM (direct object, accusative singular  of the feminine noun MENS, 3rd.declension)

-you can = POTERIS (2nd.person singular, future of POSSUM, I can). In this context Latin uses the future instead of the present)

-have = HABERE (infinitive of HABEO, I have)

-my = MEUMQUE (accusative neuter of the possessive MEUS agreed with CORPUS. Latin adds the enclitic -QUE meaning "And")

-body=CORPUS (direct object, accusative of the neuter noun CORPUS, 3rd.declension)

-Find = INVENI (2nd.person singular, imperative of INVENIO, I find)

-my=MEUM (accusative masculine of the possessive MEUS agreed with ANIMUM)

-soul = ANIMUM (direct object, accusative of the masculine noun ANIMUS, 2nd.declension)

-and ..…yours =TUUSQUE ( TUUS, possessive masculine,  meaning “yours” + the enclitic –QUE meaning “and”) / TUAQUE (possessive feminine,  meaning “yours” + the enclitic –QUE meaning “and”)

-I'm= ERO (2nd.person singular, future of SUM, I am). In this context Latin uses the future instead of the present)

-forever= IN AETERNUM


As you can see, Latin word order can be different from English  for Latin is an inflected language where syntactical relationships are indicated by the endings, not by the order of the words.