First Ideal in Latin

[Devout Pathian]

I love Stormlight and Latin, so this kind of happened while I was supposed to be doing Latin homework. . .

Vita prae morte.

Postestas prae defectu.

Iter prae destinatione.

This is the one I like due to it’s words and more subtle meanings, but I also made one that is more poetic. (They can still be translated as the same.)

Vita prae defunctu.

Vis prae defectu.

Via prae destinatione.

I like my translations, but I must disclose there isn’t a word in Latin that directly means destination (at least that I was able to find), so I picked the word (destinatio, destinationis) that destination is derived directly from.  Destinatio can mean determination, purpose, design, as well as others.

[CJ Feboris]

I like your latin, I'm in the first year so I don't know much, but here is what I came up with:

Vita ante mortem / Vita prae mortae (The ante implies place or time whereas the prae implies preference, both of which are supported by the text, but ante is followed by the accusative, and prae is followed by the ablative case)

my favorite for the "strength before weakness" is: Virtus prae debilitate, which google translates pretty poorly it could also be because debilita has the implication of feebleness and weakness where defectu is a failure

I like both of your journey before destinations, I think they both convey the same message, and your poetic version is very nice with its symmetry but it might lose some of the punch of the ideals. 

Thanks, that was fun!

CJ

[Devout Pathian]

Yeah that’s one thing great about Latin is all the different ways to say similar things and how they can translate the same, but it has subtle different meanings.  Ante does work, but I think I personally like prae more, but I also concidered using pro.  (I’ll assume this is a typo, but mortae should be morte.  It’s in the third declension.  I don’t know if you’ve gotten there yet. But you got debiltate right down below, so I assume it’s just a typo.)

I like virtus prae debiltate.  I quite like debiltate.  There was so many words I looked through yesterday that it was hard to pick which to use.  I had concidered using virtus, but decided against it, because it is more about manly virtue, (battle) courage, and exellence than strength.  Although virtus still works.

As far as the difference between via and iter.  Although they can mean the same things, I perfer iter, because via applies a road more than a journey, such as Via Giulia, which is a road in Rome.  A lot of the roads would have names with via in it.

One more thought about Latin, I think it would fit the Alethi very well.  Their language is very different, but the war aspects of Latin would work so well.  “Bellum est bellum.” (“War is beautiful.”)

[CJ Feboris]

You are right about the third declension, I just messed up in my declining the ablative. It should be morte. 

I think War is beautiful should be Bellum est bellus since est is followed by the nominative case. But thanks for indulging my inner Latin nerd!

[Devout Pathian]

Same thanks for letting me nerd about Latin with another.  However, it definitely is bellum.  You’re right that it needs to be in the same case, but it also has to have the same gender and number.  Bellum (war) is nominative, neuter, singular, so beautiful (bellus, bella, bellum) needs to be the same, therefore bellum.  It’s what makes the pun so great, since when bellus, bella, bellum (beautiful) is in the neuter it can’t be told apart from bellum (war), execpt of course in context.  

Anyways, thanks CJ for the conversation.  It’s not too many people who are Sanderson and Latin fans.