Et ceteri (and the others)

(Just a note, I cannot find any reference on how Ukraine would be spelt in Latin in these modern times. According to sources, modern dat Russia, Belarus and Ukraine was called Rutehnia in ancient Rome. So, to differentiate between Ukraine and Russia, I have used the Italian form ‘Ukraina’: apologies to any I may offend. Also, sorry too for any errors in my very basic Latin but I am trying!)

Ucraina Rutheniaque in bellō sunt et tristis sum. dux tamen Ucrainā, nōmine Volodimirus, virtus est. multī autem populī in Ucrainā nōn territus mīlites Rutheniam sunt.

Eurōpa et NATO, iuvāte Ucrainan. Date eōs telaque spesque.

Ucraina, sine timore estis! pugnātē! superāre Putinum vōs cupiō. victoriam populōrum tuam cupiō. 

victoria populīs Ucrainae!

It's finally here, the omicron variant of COVID-19.  The fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. Will this mean Pi will be next? Omicron is spreading fast and I suspect time for lock-downs is approaching. 

(2nd of January 2022)

The translation of ‘To cross the great stream’ with ‘trānsīre magnum fluvium’ is a good example to help me focus on analysing conjugations and declensions. It also reminds us to ensure the adjective agrees with the case, gender and number of the noun it is describing.

To those reading this, my Latin is at the level of a pre-kindergarten child so anything I write is useless as am I.

Now that this is clear, my concern with this translation is the with the English use of ‘stream’ whereas Dr Mo tells me the Chinese used in the Hexagram is ‘大川’ which is big or great river. Whereas in Chinese, a ‘stream’ would be ‘小溪’ so the use of ‘stream’ as opposed to ‘river’ seems an odd choice. As with the previous entry, the Chinese to Latin translation seems more accurate rather than the Chinese to English and English to Latin.

So with just the English to Latin translation, the use of the neuter noun flūmen for ‘stream’ may have been a better choice: ‘trānsīre magnum flūmen’. With the breakdown being:

- trānsīre: verb in the infinitive present case

- flūmen: neuter noun in the accusative (the river/stream being the )

- magnum: neuter adjective in the singular 

The English to Latin translation where the noun ‘fluvium’ is used also triggers us to ensure the adjective matches the noun in gender, case and number. In this case, with fluvius being a masculine noun, magnus would be our nominative case. But we are dealing with the accusative case of fluvius so we decline to fluvium. And with that, we use magnum being the accusative singular declension of magnus.

Our conjugations and decisions are summarized as:

- trānsīre: verb in the infinitive present case

- fluvium: masculine noun in the accusative (the river/stream being the object)

- magnum: masculine adjective in the singular 

(Notice the change to a masculine noun and adjective here, it is just a coincidence that the neuter declension of magnum in the accusative is the same as the masculine declension of magnum in the accusative case.)

So to sum up, if I was translating from the English to the Latin I would say: ‘trānsīre magnum flūmen’ the emphasise the stream rather than a river. But fluvius would be fine if emphasising ‘running water’ (and maybe stream was used in English for poetic meter purposes?).

But the Chinese to Latin translation of ‘trānsīre magnum fluvium’ seems a solid choice.

A multitude is seen, Of headless dragons, This is Auspicious / Bonum

This morning I noticed in John Minford’s “I-Ching” some Latin translations so I thought I would try to analyse these translations to further help my Latin learnings. I naively thought this would be a quick exercise and the first analysis, being a translation of only the single word bonum, would take half an hour at most. I could not have been more wrong! (It is interesting the Dr. Mo’s recent post also discusses the nativity of children!)

In this first analysis, I will explore the following translation of the first Hexagram with Yang in the final place (whatever that means, I need to read the other stuff in this site more):

A multitude is seen,

Of headless dragons,

This is Auspicious

Bonum

The first quibble: I don’t think a capital B is needed as I’ve often been told that only proper nouns were capitalised. Other nouns wer enot, even at the start of a sentence. (Before I go on, if I am wrong, I am wrong, hopefully I will self-correct as I continue with Latin.) 

As a translation of auspicious, I will assume we are dealing with bonus, bona, bonum (adjective good; kind; beautiful; pleasant; right; useful; considerable; rich; virtuous; promising, happy; favourable; high, honourable Given the author as used a noun in Latin, it would imply that “bonum” It seems that the author is translating auspicious as “good”. 

However, Bonum is also a neuter noun in the second declension (bonum, bonī noun neuter good; wealth, goods; benefit; advantage; profit; endowment, virtue; summum bonum the supreme good (philosophical term).(OLD)

The translation of auspicious to bonum seem consistent in other hexagrams but I am not convinced it is the best translation. Indeed, Dr. Mo has informed me that auspicious may not be the best translation of the Chinese character 吉. A further reason to challenge bonum!

Let’s look a bit more into the etymology of auspicious. According to etymonline.com:

auspicious (adj.) 1590s, "of good omen" (implied in auspiciously), from Latin auspicium "divination by observing the flight of birds," from auspex (genitive auspicis) + -ous. 

So given this, why use bonum to translate an English word derived from Latin? Irrespective of a better translation of 吉, would auspicātus be a better translation:

auspicatus, auspicata, auspicatum adjective consecrated by auguries; favourable, auspicious (OLD)

I have also seen faustus suggested which may be an even better fit if we move away from auspicious’ roots (could this be getting closer to 吉?):

faustus, fausta, faustum adjective favourable; auspicious; lucky, prosperous (OLD)

But let’s stick with the etymology of auspicious for the time being. A google search maps its branches back to auspice +ous (see the end for more on -ous). Although a search of auspice reveals it being from either French or Latin (with no further lineage on the French branch), the Latin branch shifts back to auspicium on back to auspex. Google tells us that auspexis derived from avis (bird) and spectere (the infinitive form of the verb “to watch”). So why is watching birds somehow related to auspicious? We should probably look at it the other way: watching birds is why we use auspicious to describe something that is conducive to success or good fortune. Let’s look at some more words and try to determine more of this web (all sources below are from the OLD unless stated):

avis, avis noun feminine bird; omen, portent (notā bene, the translated meaning of not just bird but also omen, portent!)

auspicium, auspic(i)ī noun neuter auspices; the right of taking auspices; leadership, authority; sign, omen

auspex, auspicis noun masculine diviner by birds; soothsayer; patron, supporter

auspices (n.) plural (and now the usual form) of auspice (1530s), "observation of birds for the purpose of taking omens," from French auspice (14c.), from Latin auspicum "divination from the flight of birds; function of an auspex" (q.v.). Meaning "any indication of the future (especially favorable)" is from 1650s; earlier (1630s) in extended sense of "benevolent influence of greater power, influence exerted on behalf of someone or something," originally in expression under the auspices of. (entyonline.com)

Also from the OLD: “The auspices refer to the consultation of the gods by the augerēs through such signs as thunder and lightning, the flight and general behaviours of birds, including the sacred chickens, and from unusual behaviour of quadrupeds.”

augur, auguris noun masc/fem augur; soothsayer

“augerēs formed one of the four great Roman colleges of priests. They were responsible for the observation and application of the auspices (auspicium)”

But what about faustus? Other than the simple definition of this adjective, there appears little to support its use in terms of soothsaying or divination. With my lack of Latin, others will know better but I think it could still be acceptable and would seem far better than bonum. Is auspicatum the best choice of adjective? As the translation deals with the I-Cheng, arguing the use of auspicatum could be countered if we focus on its definition relative to the augerēs.

Does the answer lay in a word-forming element? While exploring this, I did read the following from etymoplogy.com:

“-ous word-forming element making adjectives from nouns, meaning "having, full of, having to do with, doing, inclined to," from Old French -ous, -eux, from Latin -osus (compare -ose (1)). In chemistry, "having a lower valence than forms expressed in -ic." (entyonline.com)

Sadly, for now, I cannot find any information that may help with my understanding of “…from Latin -osus…” and wehter this may inform me if a adjective could be formed from a noun (especially auspex?).

I may be wrong and am sure to make people I don’t know cross but, to answer my original concerns, I think bonum is a poor translation. I would use auspicatumgiven its clear shared roots with auspicious but faustum wouldn’t annoy me either.

This was meant to be short entry taking me a few minutes, but what a warren I ended up exploring!

Source: OLD = Oxford Latin Dictionary