Latin advice needed!

[enismirdal]

Hear ye, hear ye Classicists!

ilanin proposed a wondrous motto for me, and kindly translated it into Latin to make it sound as posh and respectable as something like Ex Astris, Scientia. However, before I change the name of my LJ to it, we thought it'd be best to double check it's an OK translation!

Complecto non sciscabam sed capiavero.

Comments?

Comments

[ilanin.livejournal.com]

ilanin would like to point out that he'll be downright amazed if it is an OK translation, given that he hasn't studied Latin since 1997.

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

complector - I embrace (it's deponent, hence the 'r')
non scivi - I did not learn (perfect tense - I figured people often use the imperfect in Latin when they mean to use the perfect, but...)
capivero - I shall have captured (future perfect seemed to be what you were going for, but I don't understand why)

Um, I'm not sure I've understood what you were trying to say, but I'm afraid I'm not very sharp today - sorry. There didn't seem to be anything linking the verb phrases. Was that intentional? I mean, I heartily approve of anaphora, I just usually put commas in :)

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Oooh, OK! I think the phrase is intended to translate (very roughly) as:

"I do/did not ask for hugs, but I will take them!"

After ilanin pointed out that my motto in life appears to be, "I wasn't actually asking for a hug, but I'll certainly take one!"

Thanks for looking anyway! It's muchly appreciated!

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

complexus non peto sed accipio

I do not seek hugs but I accept them

Does that work? That's the best I can do with half a brain, anyway, but I can assure you it's at least correct :)

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Perfect and lovely! Thank you! :D *hugs*

I hope you're feeling better soon! *more hugs*

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

*many hugs back* Thank you :)

[ilanin.livejournal.com]

My use of the imperfect was very deliberate indeed. The phrase I translated was "I was not asking for a hug but I'll take it."

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I'm very good at coming over as the arrogant classicist ;)

Actually, I'd translate the 'I was not asking' in this case as perfect anyway - it's a bit of a misapprehension that any verb with a 'was' in it should automatically be translated as imperfect. The imperfect is designed for things that are iterative and have happened regularly happened in the past, so to use a Latin imperfect for 'I was not asking' would end up meaning something more like 'I did not used to ask' and certainly implies that the not asking has ended. The perfect, however, is used for things that happen once, as well as things which continue to apply in the present, so you would end up with something which meant something like '(On that occasion) I did not ask', which seems to fit the phrase better to me.

So yes, I would have used a perfect if I hadn't decided the present works well - the version with the perfect would be something like 'complexus non petivi sed accipio', but I favour the present for its ongoing iterative quality. The future definitely isn't the thing to use for 'I'll take them', IMO. English idiom doesn't always translate very well into Latin, so I always think you have to think hard about exactly what you mean and what moods and tenses to use.

Um, yes, well that's what I think. I'm sort of trained for Ciceronian Latin (hence my talk of anaphora!), but I've done plenty of free style too - this is quite free styley. There was once a Harry Potter passage on the exam, I seem to remember, but I did Cicero in stead. My old prose comp supervisor suggested I might want to teach prose comp next year, but that seems a bit scary to me!