I’m currently reading A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller Jr (and enjoying it too). The book has Latin interspersed all over it. While I can piece together some of it, I would really like to know the translations of the chapter names. They are:
Fiat Homo
Fiat Lux
Fiat Voluntas Tua
Could Fiat mean “Act?” That would make #1 “Act of Man.”
Lux? My first thought after coming up with my possible translation for #1 was God. However, that would have been Dei (or some other form of it). Could Lux be light?
Two of the three quotations are from the Vulgate Bible of St. Jerome. For future reference, you can search for unfamiliar phrases and look up the verse in the English Bible.
Fiat Lux=Let there be light (Gen. 1:3)
Fiat Voluntas Tua=Thy will be done (Matt. 6:10)
The phrase ‘fiat homo’ is found in the Confessions of St. Augustine. That may or may not be Miller’s the source.
Speaking of Latin-English puns does anybody remember the exact Latin words to the following:
Oh, see, Billy, see 'em go,
Forty buses in a row.
Oh, no, Billy, them is trucks.
What is in 'em?
Cows and dux.
In Latin it’s made up of real words, but it’s utter nonesense. It runs something like:
O sybili si emgo
Fortibus es in naro
O nobili demis trux
Vatis enim
Caus in dux.
I used to have the exact Latin wording but I can’t find it now. As I recall, I looked up all the Latin words but couldn’t find some of them.
But you know that man' can be used to mean mankind.’ So, there’s nothing to quibble. In fact, my understanding is that man' meaning mankind’ is etymologically unrelated to `man’ meaning ‘a male person.’ They are not homonyms. Well, one is a homonym and the other is a virnym. But they are homophones, not to be confused with homophomes, which are anti-homos, or hominis avunculara which are homo’s aunties.
It looks a little like Portuguese but it’s not. I suppose it really is Latin. I need more information. What is the source of the quotation? What is the context? Is “ilio” capitalized?
“De Ilio” means from Troy or about Troy. “Do” is I give, I send, or I put. “Leo” is lion, but it must be the subject of the sentence (or the one spoken to). Put it all together and you get something like “I, the lion, send [news?] from Troy.” Doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense to me. Are you sure you didn’t make a typo? Context. I need context!
I may be barking up the wrong tree, but “De Ilio doleo” makes a lot more sense. It can be translated “I grieve for Troy.” I searched the Aeneid for this phrase but came up empty.
Err, umm, well, that makes no sense, due to a variety of features, not the least of which is that I don’t think the word “ilio” exists (personal knowledge and a quick check of an online dictionary…I could look in an unabridged one that I have at home here, but I’m too lazy). What you have right now…I mean, I can’t translate it because it doesn’t make sense…“About (ilio) I give…” and fit lion in there somewhere, where it is neither the subject nor the object of anything…just…sitting there.
However, were you to say “De illo doleo” it would make perfect sense. “I am sad about that.”
For the interested, fiat is the 3rd person singular subjunctive form of the verb facere, meaning to do or make, but in the subjunctive it has the new meaning of “become,” ergo, fiat lux, let there be light, etc., as has already been answered.
“De ilio do leo” is from a “coat of arms” or a “heraldic” shield for a ship in the U.S. 7th Fleet. I’m assuming the ship was CLG-5 USS Oklahoma City, but I’m not sure. I haven’t seen the shield in many years, so I’m not sure of the spelling; but I think it’s right.
I was never taught Latin, so I was guessing that “ilio” had something to do with the ilium, part of the pelvis, so I thought it might be something like “The loin of the lion”; but that seems somewhat rude to hang on a Naval vessel.
The Oklahoma City was the flagship for the 7th Fleet when my dad was Communications Officer aboard her. Maybe the “send news” idea has something to with communicating with the fleet?
(Still, “The loin of the lion” has a nice ring to it. :D)
This will teach me to trust a cheesy online dictionary over a nice, real life, unabridged one. Ilio would in fact be the dative/ablative of ilium, meaning “hipbone.” Now, how this fits in I’m not sure…because it still doesn’t make any sense to me. We have “I give,” “about a/the hipbone,” and “a/the lion,” keeping in mind that lion cannot be an object of anything, as it is in the nominative case. I don’t understand how you would put those words together to make an intelligible sentence.
“De illo doleo,” and “De Illio doleo” both make sense…but if it really is “De ilio do leo,” I’ve got to believe that either the people who wrote that weren’t the best Latin scholars around, or else I’m just an idiot…hopefully the former.
