Attention all Latin Scholars!

[Cynthia]

Because it was such a gloomy, cold and still wintry weekend in Northern Ohio, I amused myself by attempting to translate the Queen's mottoes from Latin to English. It has been a long, long time since I took Latin, so I wondered if there were any Latin scholars on the Forum who would give this a shot!

Pristinae Virtutis Memor

Vel Exuviae Triumphant

What I came up with was something like:

"Ever mindful of our past courage"

or

"???? triumphant"

And yes, I do need to get a life - I figure I might have mine back once it stops snowing around here!

Cynthia

[Alan Seymour]

Cynthia

Mottoes Pristinae virtutis memor - Mindful of the gallant actions of the past.

Vel exuvia triumphans - Even in defeat there can be triumph.

No I'm not a latin scholar, the above taken from the Queen's web-site!

Alan Seymour

[Cynthia]

Thanks, Alan. You could have fooled me by telling me you were a Latin scholar - but then you might have had to do even more translations!

Appreciate your response. Guess I should have looked at the Queen's site first, but I loved the challenge of using a few of the old rusty little grey cells this weekend.

Cynthia

[MartinWills]

Cynthia, Alan,

One has to bear in mind that where latin is used in mottoes the translation is often either vague or imaginative and the latin can be anything varying from pure roman to medieval, the latter often bearing little similarity to the former. I have often struggled with inscriptions where the meaning and intent have differed from what has actually been written. Whilst it was clear at the time that "Omnia gallia in tres partes divisa erat" (it is no longer; the EC has seen to that) it is equally clear that as countless schoolboys (and girls) have inscribed in latin text books "Latin is a language as dead as dead can be - it killed the ancient romans and now it's killing me"

Woe betide anyone who was caught making such an inscription and was then forced to translate it.........