Expert: Maria - 7/29/2006

Question
It is many years since I studied latin so I am very rusty! however, I have been asked by a teaching colleague to come up with a phrase for him to use on retirement of a colleague. he would like to say" live life well" or similar in latin. could you please help? thanks.

Answer
Hello,

The literal translation of the  phrase "Live life well"  is in Latin: “Vitam bene vive“, where VITAM is ‘life’; BENE is ‘well’ and VIVE is ‘live’.

Anyway you can say merely :” Bene vive” meaning the same.

Moreover you could say:”Vitam vive beatam” which means literally “Live a quiet and happy life“.
In fact BEATAM ( adjective in the accusative feminine singular, agreed with VITAM ) means ‘quiet and happy’.

Latin word order is different from English, as you can see.

Best regards,
Maria