Re: Latin Translation

David Peterson wrote:
>
>     I don't know if the rest of you get this, but since I've started listing
> the languages I know/study in my profile (real ones), I get all sorts of
> instant messages and e-mails from people I've never heard of asking me to
> translate things (usually containing the word "love", and this time is no
> exception).  Anyway, I want to check my Latin here.  The phrase is "To kill
> me, you must love me."  (I swear, it sounds exactly like some sentences out
> of the book I'm learning from.  What is that one?  Ah, yes: "If you love me,
> save me".)  Here's what I did:  Me necare, me debes amare.  Yet it seems like
> this should have some sort of a subjunctive in the second, and/or that there
> should be some kind of word meaning "in order to" in the beginning...  I'm
> just a learner, you see.  I'm nowhere near ready to converse in Latin for a
> week.  :)
I think you'd have to use a causative gerund/gerundive. An "ut..."
clause would technically work, as Paul suggested, but I don't know if it
would be idomatically Roman, semantically. So you've got a few choices
for your phrase (and the verb (debes) should go at the end, since Latin
usually preferred SOV):

Ad me necandum, me amare debes.
Me necandi causa, me amare debes.

You could also use "interficio" for "to kill", which, I've been told, is
the more "Roman" word to use. So:

Ad me interficiendum, me amare debes.
Me interficiendi causa, me amare debes.

You could also flip the clause order, but this would take the emphasis
off of "to kill me", which I presume you want to keep:

Me amare debes ad me necandum.
Me amare debes me interficiendi causa.

To use an "ut" clause (I'm still not sure if the exact semantics work
out right for this one, though):

Me amare debes ut me neces/interficias.

--
Daniel Seriff
microtonal@sericap.com
http://members.tripod.com/microtonal

Honesty means never having to say "Please don't flush me down the toilet!"
                      - Bob the Dinosaur