Expert: Maria - 1/21/2012

Question
Hi Maria,

I'm looking to get the following translated from English to Latin. I have tried Google Translator but don't think is 100% accurate.

"Stop searching for the light at the end of the tunnel, and find God in the darkness."

Your help will be greatly appreciated, thanks again.

Answer
Hello,

“Lucem in extremo desine cryptoportico quaerere ac Deum in tenebris inveni” is the correct translation of "Stop searching for the light at the end of the tunnel, and find God in the darkness".
See grammatical analysis below.
Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-Stop = DESINE (2nd.person singular, imperative of DESINO)

-searching = QUAERERE (infinitive of QUAERO which takes the accusative LUCEM)

-for the light = LUCEM (direct object, accusative of LUX, 3rd.declension)

-at the end =IN EXTREMO (ablative of the adjective EXTREMUS agreed with CRYPTOPORTICO)

-of the tunnel = CRYPTOPORTICO (ablative of CRYPTOPORTICUS, 2nd.declension, literally meaning”tunnel”/ “a covered gallery” )

-and = AC

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

-God = DEUM (direct object, accusative of DEUS, 2nd.declension)

-in = IN (preposition which takes the ablative)

-the darkness= TENEBRIS (ablative of TENEBRAE, 1st.declension).This is a “plurale tantum “(Latin for "plural only"), that is a noun that appears only in the plural form.


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 inflectional endings, not by the order of the words.