# Is "Die to live" = "Ad mori vivere"?



## broken_ape

Topic: Is "Die to live" = "Ad mori vivere"?
Added by Cagey, moderator 

Please, could someone tell me if Google's translator is doing a good job with that phrase?

Thanks in advance.


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## jazyk

If _die_ there is an imperative, it should be Morere ut vivas (Muere para vivir) o Morimini ut vivatis (Morid/Mueran para vivir).


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## broken_ape

jazyk said:


> If _die_ there is an imperative, it should be Morere ut vivas (Muere para vivir) o Morimini ut vivatis (Morid/Mueran para vivir).



Both verbs are in their infinitive forms ("Morir para vivir"). Then, it would be correct "Ad mori vivere"?

Thank you very much for your answer, my friend.


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## jazyk

Then it is _mori ad vivendum_. I don't like this rendering, though. Wait for better ideas.


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## Scholiast

salvete amici!

My suggestion:

_moriendo vivendum _[_est_].

_moriendo_ is a gerund (in the ablative, hence 'by dying').
_vivendum _(_est_) is a gerundive construction, meaning 'one must/should/ought to live.

Gerunds and gerundives are not strictly infinitives, but in this context they convey the thought of 'morir para vivir', and with something of the same epigrammatic and paradoxical force, when thus combined, as the Spanish original.

For Latin, incidentally, 'Google translate' is worse than useless.

Σ


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## broken_ape

jazyk said:


> Then it is _mori ad vivendum_. I don't like this rendering, though. Wait for better ideas.





Scholiast said:


> salvete amici!
> 
> My suggestion:
> 
> _moriendo vivendum _[_est_].
> 
> _moriendo_ is a gerund (in the ablative, hence 'by dying').
> _vivendum _(_est_) is a gerundive construction, meaning 'one must/should/ought to live.
> 
> Gerunds and gerundives are not strictly infinitives, but in this context they convey the thought of 'morir para vivir', and with something of the same epigrammatic and paradoxical force, when thus combined, as the Spanish original.
> 
> For Latin, incidentally, 'Google translate' is worse than useless.
> 
> Σ



Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Gods will pay your generosity!


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