On Sat, Feb 02, 2019 at 06:10:21PM +0100, Alessandro DE LAURENZIS wrote: > Dear developers, > > Currently the latin motto "Ad astra per aspera" is translated as "to the > stars by aspiration", which sounds weird. > > The literal translation from Wikipedia [1] would be "through hardships > to the stars", but here I'm proposing a rewording by A. J. Finn, in "The > Woman in the Window: A Novel" (cited in Wikipedia too), which I like > more: "Through adversity to the stars": > > [...]
hi. i should state that i know very little of latin before going any further. i agree "aspiration" looks like a mistake. i suspect the intention was "asperity", which means harshness and rigour. there is a verb, asperate, but i think it's a bit obsolete. i'm a bit reluctant to just follow wikipedia blindly. i think the latin is pural, and "hardships" doesn;t sound awesome when plural. also i prefer "by" to "through": since it's latin, a little archaicism is good. "adversity" would be easily understood and have the correct meaning (i think). but the translation you recommend (by Finn) restructures the phrase. i think it should begin "To the stars" (that's a minus for wikipedia too). so "To the stars by adversity." though i suspect "asperity" would have most of us reaching for our dictionaries, it's not neccessarily a bad thing. it seems the best fit to me. jmc > > Index: games/fortune/datfiles/fortunes2 > > =================================================================== > > RCS file: /cvs/src/games/fortune/datfiles/fortunes2,v > > retrieving revision 1.49 > > diff -u -p -u -p -r1.49 fortunes2 > > --- games/fortune/datfiles/fortunes2 25 Nov 2017 05:55:40 -0000 1.49 > > +++ games/fortune/datfiles/fortunes2 2 Feb 2019 16:50:16 -0000 > > @@ -7694,7 +7694,7 @@ Assume true for N, prove for N+1: > > it is true for all N+1 floors. > > QED. > > % > > -Ad astra per aspera. (To the stars by aspiration.) > > +Ad astra per aspera. (Through adversity to the stars.) > > % > > Adde parvum parvo manus acervus erit. > > [Add little to little and there will be a big pile.] > [...] > > Just my 2 cents. > > [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_aspera_ad_astra > > -- > Alessandro DE LAURENZIS > [mailto:jus...@atlantide.t28.net] > Web: http://www.atlantide.t28.net > LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/delaurenzis/ >
