George L. McDowell, Jr. wrote:
In Druid Hill Park in Baltimore, Maryland there is a compendium dial which bears the inscription "SINE UMBRA NIHIL." My Latin is not good enough to confirm what I suspect is a double entendre. Could this inscription mean, without torturing the language, both "without shadow there is nothing," and "nothing is without shadow?" Or is there a third possible meaning? Thanks.My Latin is certainly much worse than yours so my support to your opinion is basically worthless... but yes,
I can read both meaning but I can't see a third one.
But if we translate it into Portuguese we can certainly have a third
meaning that, of course, has nothing
to do with the original, it is just a curiosity:
These are the two (possible) translation into Portuguese:
nada [é] sem sombra
sem sombra [é] nada
But "nada sem sombra" also means "swims without a shadow".
I don't think this is fun or interesting, just a "third" meaning I found when translating into Portuguese.
- fernando
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Fernando Cabral
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