Expert: Maria - 10/26/2006

Question
Hello Maria:  I have another saying tha my family has used for years. It is as follows  "You can always tell a Romani but you can never tell them much!"  We have a tendency to be resistant to taking advice. Thank you for your help.
Jack
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
I have a favorite saying that I want to have printed as a wall hanging for my office.  The saying is; In life,you do what you have to do.  My high school Latin is extremely rusty.  Any help would be appreciated.

Jack
-----Answer-----
Hello,

The saying “In life, you do what you have to do” translates  to Latin this way:

“In vita, facis  quod tibi faciendum est”.

If on the contrary you mean: “In life, do what you have to do” as an imperative, here’s the translation:

“In vita, fac quod tibi faciendum est”

Best regards from Italy,
Maria
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Note that:
-In life = IN VITA
-you do = FACIS (present indicative)  FAC (present imperative)
-what = QUOD
-you have to do = TIBI FACIENDUM EST (passive periphrastic, i.e. an idiomatic Latin construction)


Answer
Hello again Jack,

the phrase "You can always tell a Romani but you can never tell them much!" could be translated as follows:

“Semper consilia dare potes iis quibus cognomen est ‘Romani’, sed numquam  nimis!”.

Note that:
-You can = POTES
-always = SEMPER
-tell = CONSILIA DARE (literally, ‘give advice’)
-a Romani = IIS QUIBUS COGNOMEN  EST ‘ROMANI’ (literally, ‘them whose surname is ‘Romani’)
-but = SED
-never= NUMQUAM
-you can  tell them much! = NIMIS (literally, ‘in excess’)

Hope this can be helpful to you.
Best regards,
Maria