# As the moon was



## Thime

Hello everybody,
I'm trying to translate into Latin this phrase: "As the moon was".
It's a single phrase. What I want to say is something like: Even though the Titanic sank, we still get on ships. Even if a plane has crashed, we still want to fly. And we can apply these comparisons to other events and things. This also applies to the moon. The same goes for the moon.

My attempt: _Sicut luna erat_.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.


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## Sobakus

I think I understand your explanation, but I can see no way to relate it to the phrase "As the moon was". If you want it to mean "This also applies to the moon. The same goes for the moon", then neither the English nor the Latin phrase can express that meaning. If I'm mistaken, it would help if you offered some other rephrasings, or explained the sense of "as" (in the state that the moon was in? when the moon was? because the moon was?). Posso capire (e rispondere un po') anche in italiano.


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## Thime

Well, it's a phrase that have to fit into a poem, so it can have multiple shades of interpretations.
"The same goes to the moon" maybe describes better than "as the moon was" what I want to say. In italiano direi: _e così fu per la luna_.
There's a list of bad events. A plane as crashed, but people still want to fly. Etc. The same goes to moon. = Some missions went wrong before reaching the moon, but human kind didn't give up.

Maybe: _similter lunam _? or _Idem valet lunam_ ?


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## Sobakus

Right, so one way to phrase this in English would be "(and the) same for the moon". I don't believe expressing the past tense succintly is quite possible, though you can say "the same was true for the moon".

In Latin your last two suggestions are close, but I'm not sure how verbose you want it to be. The most idiomatic option is probably using a litote: _nōn/neque aliter lūna; _another way to say the same is _itidem lūna (< ita+idem). similiter_ is very matter-of-fact, and _valēre_ doesn't seem to be used in this vague meaning.


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## Scholiast

saluete omnes!

_ut luna lucebat_ might do the trick: _ut_ can be a concessive conjunction. _OLD_ s.v., § 35.

Σ


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## Sobakus

Scholiast said:


> saluete omnes!
> 
> _ut luna lucebat_ might do the trick: _ut_ can be a concessive conjunction. _OLD_ s.v., § 35.
> 
> Σ


But we've established that the author wanted to say "the same goes for the moon", while this means "like the moon was shining". There's no other clause so no concession can be understood (En. "while the moon was shining").


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## Scholiast

saluete de nouo!

The learned Sobakus may have misunderstood my earlier remark.


Thime said:


> Even though the Titanic sank, we still get on ships


This might be rendered as _quamquam Titanica amissa est, nos etiamdiu navibus conferremus._

I don't therefore find his point quite _au point_.

Σ


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## Sobakus

I'm afraid dear Scholiast has confused Sobakus even more with his last message, because Sobakus cannot see how a translation of the Titanic sentence might pertain to the following facts, namely that:

the OP's original English sentence was a mistranslation, and
what they were really looking to express was "the same goes for the moon", and
_ut luna lucebat_ means "like the moon was shining" and cannot be useful to the OP.
Does Scholiast mean that there's a concession in the context? I'm afraid this will not help _ut_ to be understood concessively just like the following English example is incomprehensible, even though a concessive meaning can be found in a dictionary under an entry for _while_: _Even though the Titanic sank, we still get on ships. While the moon was shining._

What one needs for a conjunction like _while_ or _ut_ to work concessively (adversatively) is two logically exclusive clauses that the conjunction connects; otherwise the conjunction will be understood in its default meaning.


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