Expert: Maria Date: 6/29/2008 Subject: Info!!!!!!!
Question hello, my name is andreas.... i need a translation for this sentence, which i intend to use in a presentation that i am preparing.....
"I hope for nothing, I fear of nothing, thus i am free"
Let me explain better what i mean:
"I hope for nothing" meaning that i dont hope that life will be good to me
"I fear of nothing" easily understanted :P
"Thus i am free" meaning that i am not only free in a physical way, but also in mental/spiritual level ( a physical and spiritual freedom)
pls if you can translate this sentence in latin for me as close as it gets to its meaning, i would be eternaly grateful!!!!
Thank you in advance......
Answer Hello,
Here’s the translation of the phrase "I hope for nothing, I fear of nothing, thus I am free” in the sense you‘ve explained and 'as close as it gets to its meaning':
-“Nihil spero, nihil timeo, ergo liber sum”, if the adjective ‘free’ [“liber” in Latin] refers to a male person.
-“Nihil spero, nihil timeo, ergo libera sum”, if the adjective ‘free’ [“libera” in Latin] refers to a female person.
See below for grammatical analysis.
Best regards,
Maria
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-I hope = SPERO
-for nothing = NIHIL (accusative neuter)
-I fear = TIMEO
-of nothing = NIHIL (accusative neuter)
-thus= ERGO
-I am = SUM
-free = LIBER (nominative masculine) / LIBERA (nominative feminine).
Note that both SPERO and TIMEO take the accusative case in Latin, i.e. a direct object.
Latin word order can be different from English just because Latin is an inflected language where syntactical relationships are indicated by the endings, not by the order of the words.
