# Todo es mentira. Todo lo perderás // Everything is [a] lie..



## CronopioMenor

"Todo es mentira. Todo lo perderás. // Everything is [a] lie. Everything [you have] you will lose ("You will lose everything")

Hola, qué tal. Me gustaría que me ayudaran a traducir esas frases al latín. No pongo el artículo "una mentira", sino sólo "mentira", pues es a nivel general. 
Les agradezco mucho su ayuda. 

Hello! I need your help to translate this phrases to latin. I'm placing the article "a lie" between brackets, because I'm not referring to a "universal" lie, but to a concept of lie in general. The second phrase is written different in english, but the exact phrase is somenthing as "Everything you will lose" (which means "You will lose everything"). I thank you all for your help.


----------



## CronopioMenor

¿Alguien podría ayudarme?/ Can anyone help me?
¿O podrían referirme algún foro al que pudiera acudir? / Or does anyone know about a forum where I could find an answer?

¡Gracias! Thanks!


----------



## Cagey

My try: 
_omnia falsa sunt._ All things are lies.
_omnibus privaberis._  You will be deprived of everything (all things).  

What you mean by 'everything' and the sense in which they are lies may make a difference.  Are you talking about material goods or abstractions -- such as power?
Are they lies in the sense that they have been constructed to appear to be something they aren't?


----------



## CronopioMenor

First of all, thank you so much for answering!!

Now, I'm talking about EVERYTHING, including material goods (clothes, house, food, car, etc.) and abstractions (love, titles, friendship, etc), as well as other people's words and compromises. I truly mean EVERYTHING, every-single-thing-in-this-and-the-other-life. And they're lies because they will fall apart some day, sooner or later. They are lies because they're human made creations. They're lies because they (really) do not exist. They're lies because tomorrow we will not have anything of what has been promised to us... that's kind of the sense of the concept "lie" in this phrase. 

I've been suggested this basic translation by someone with basic studies in latin: "Omnia mendacium est. Perdes omnia". Suggestions?

Thanks so much, again!


----------



## CronopioMenor

Hello! I'm still looking for help. 
Thanks!


----------



## relativamente

Omnia es todo y no se necesita más explicación, pero si se quiere enfatizar se puede añadir algo más como por ejemplo pareafraseando el credo de Nicea,.Todo lo visible y lo invisible. "Omnia visibilia atque invisibilia".
En cuanto a la frase "Omnia mendacium est" no me parece correcta ya que omnia es plural y no concuerda en número como debería con mendacium que es singular.


----------



## CronopioMenor

I've been looking in other places for answers, but it seems latin isn't quite as common as I thought  
Any further help will be appreciated. Thanks!


----------



## wtrmute

How about quoting Ecclesiastes?

_Vanitas vanitatum, dixit Ecclesiastes, Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas._

Literally: Vanity (=emptiness) of vanities, says the Ecclesiastes (=preacher?). Vanity of vanities, and everything is vanity.

The next versicle also captures the feeling of your second phrase quite well, I think:

_Quid lucri est homini de universo labore suo, quo laborat sub sole?_

Literally: What profit is there to a man from all his labours, he who works under the sun?

The whole book carries a sense that the things in this world are foolish and empty, akin to the lies you allude to, and that all our work upon the Earth are for naught.

Would this possibly be of use to you?


----------



## CronopioMenor

Hello. I got another suggestion from an acquaintance: 

"Omnis est mendacium. Omnis eum perdēs."

Corrections? Other translations?


----------



## CronopioMenor

Thanks, wtrmute... Really, latin is a langue of a special beauty, of powerful sounds. 
The thing is that we are looking for this original phrase to be translated. Is for a motto, so we are looking for quite a flawless translation, and neither I nor my acquaintances have any knowledge of this magnificent tongue. 

Thanks!


----------



## wandle

CronopioMenor said:


> "Omnis est mendacium. Omnis eum perdēs."


I am afraid that is not correct Latin.

I do not see at present what you mean by 'everything is a lie'.


> I truly mean EVERYTHING, every-single-thing-in-this-and-the-other-life.  And they're lies because they will fall apart some day, sooner or later.  They are lies because they're human made creations. They're lies  because they (really) do not exist. They're lies because tomorrow we  will not have anything of what has been promised to us


This is not easy to understand. Most people would say that the earth and its natural products, along with the sun and stars, etc., do exist and are not human creations; and that human creations such as cars, houses and the computers on which we connect to the internet also exist: and that none of the above are things promised to us, let alone falsely promised, but are things which have been delivered (produced).


----------



## wtrmute

Well, flawless translations are a bit of a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, since there are always subtle nuances of sense which are lost in the translation.

But going quite literally, I have to go with something close to what Cagey suggested back in #3:

First of all, "Everything, all things", properly is _omnĭa, ĭum n._  "Falsehood" can either be _falsum n._ or _mendacium n._; I prefer the former, but you could use either. The copula _sum_ can be elided. Finally, since both words are nouns, they don't have to agree in gender (cf. _Everything is a lie_ vs. _All things are lies_), but they might as well.  So since _omnia_ is _plurale tantum_ (literally _plural only_), we can put falsehood into the plural, as well: _Omnia falsa_ or _Omnia mendacia_.

For the second part, we need to start with the verb. The verb _perdō, -ĕre, -dĭdī, -dĭtum _actually means originally "destroy, ruin, waste", and only secondarily"lose irrecoverably". Privō, -āre, -āvī, -ātum "deprive, rob, strip" is actually closer to the actual meaning of "to lose" if you put it in passive voice "be deprived, be robbed, be stripped".  Alternative, the passive of capĭō, -ĕre, cēpī, captum "take, grasp in hand" would also work.  Privō takes as ablative the thing being taken, so Omnibus privābĕrīs "You will be deprived of everything". Capiō takes as accusative what is taken, and as dative who it's being taken from, so _Omnia tībī capiētur_ "Everything will be taken from you".  By contrast, _Omnia perdēs _means "You will spoil/ruin everything".

So I'd go for _Omnia falsa. Omnia tībī capiētur._​ as the closest analogue to what you want.


----------



## CronopioMenor

wtrmute said:


> So I'd go for _Omnia falsa. Omnia tībī capiētur._​ as the closest analogue to what you want.



Man, I can't thank you enough. ¡Mil gracias, muito obrigado!

I'm still trying do digest and understand your whole explanation (that was awesome); in the mean time, may I bother you with another question? If it's going to be all written in capital letters... Would the macrons (over the i and e) be drawn exactly as in lower cases?

OMNIA FALSA. OMNIA TĪBĪ CAPIĒTUR. 

Right?


----------



## wtrmute

CronopioMenor said:


> Man, I can't thank you enough. ¡Mil gracias, muito obrigado!
> 
> I'm still trying do digest and understand your whole explanation (that was awesome); in the mean time, may I bother you with another question? If it's going to be all written in capital letters... Would the macrons (over the i and e) be drawn exactly as in lower cases?
> 
> OMNIA FALSA. OMNIA TĪBĪ CAPIĒTUR.
> 
> Right?



Not at all; I'm still a beginner myself.  Enough to make a mistake on the phrase I gave you: like I said, _omnia_ is a plurale tantum, so if it's used as subject the verb should be in the plural.  That's the case for both phrases, so it should be _capiēntur_ rather than _capiētur_.

As for the macrons, the answer is, helpfully enough, "yes and no".  You see, the Romans themselves didn't use macrons at all to mark vowel length, but to mark syllable weight, which is a poetical consideration (and then only when analysing the meter of poetry).  To mark actual long vowels, the Romans used what's called an _apex_, which kind of looks like our acute accent but was thinner.  It was actually used fairly frequently in classical times, but it wasn't noticed by post-Renaissance Latinists who came up with their own system to mark long and short vowels, borrowing the macron and breve from poetry.

So if you want your inscription to look epigraphic, you'll probably want to omit the macrons, replace U by V, remove the full stops, and replace all spaces by interpuncts (·).  This way you'd get "OMNIA·FALSA·OMNIA·TIBI·CAPIENTVR".

If you just want the phrase to be readable, keeping the macrons over the uppercase letters like you did should be fine, though.  There's something to be said for the modern graphical signs, sentence separation and all that.  It really helps reading comprehension if you're not fluent already.


----------



## CronopioMenor

Ok... Another, more simple approach to the sentence, just the first part of it: 

OMNIA EX MENDACIO. 

Is this correct?


----------

