# Translating an epitaph **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 5, 2008, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-an-epitaph/448096 "2008-05-05T06:13:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-an-epitaph/448096/1 "2008-05-05T06:13:09Z")
In one of Ripley’s articles, he featured a grave “desecrated by nature.” The inscription on the headstone read (in German) _“Dieses auf ewig erkaufte Begräbniß darf nie geöffnet werden,”_ or “This grave may never be opened.”(A tree trunk split the headstone in two!) I’ve translated that into some other languages but am not sure I’ve done it right… **Spanish:** _“Esta tumba nunca fue abierta.”_ **Russian:** _“Nachatsya eta mogila vospreshchayetsya navsegda.”_ Am I close? ---
**Author:** ![Roog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a87d85/32.png) [@Roog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roog)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-an-epitaph/448096/2 "2008-05-05T06:38:57Z")
The complete translation (literally) into English would be: “This eternally purchased funeral may never be opened.” And Begräbnis has only one s. ---
**Author:** ![Crescend](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Crescend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crescend)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-an-epitaph/448096/3 "2008-05-05T06:52:54Z")
The Russian translation reads something like “This grave begins prohibited forever.” Maybe “Могила вечно заперта.” - “[This] grave is eternally closed/shut.” Though that last word - заперта - does carry a bit of a connotation of a shop closing its doors, or a locker being closed, not exactly funerary-ish. And the whole thing reads more like a bland bureaucratic notice than anything else - “The pool is closed”, “No more cheese until further notice”, “grave permanently shut”… ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-an-epitaph/448096/4 "2008-05-05T07:01:02Z")
What about “Esta tumba no puede abierta nunca.” for the spanish translation? ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-an-epitaph/448096/5 "2008-05-05T07:05:27Z")
[QUOTE=dougie\_monty] I’ve translated that into some other languages but am not sure I’ve done it right… **Russian:** _“Nachatsya eta mogila vospreshchayetsya navsegda.”_ [/QUOTE] \ It sounds very wrong. I’d guess that you need ‘otkritvat’/ otkrit’’ for ‘open’, rather than ‘nachatsya’ (which would be more appropriate for opening a meeting). But there may be some funky Russian verb for opening a grave which I’m not aware of. I also think that you’re off the mark with ‘vospreschaetsya’ for ‘darf’, as it contains the idea of prohibition, which I’m not sure is so strongly present in the German. Additionally, if you are going with a word indicating prohibition, I’d pick zapreschaetsya or zapresheno or nel’zya. Finally, I’m vaguely wondering whether it should be ‘grob’ rather than ‘mogila’ for grave: ‘mogila’, to me, is closer to ‘tombstone’ although I believe that’s not strictly correct: ‘bratskaya mogila’ means ‘common grave’. Having comprehensively muddied the waters, I’ll cease and desist and ask some of my native speaker friends when they wake up. Incidentally, do you have a link to the original article? \ ---
**Author:** ![Crescend](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Crescend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crescend)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-an-epitaph/448096/6 "2008-05-05T07:57:00Z")
[QUOTE=Surok] It sounds very wrong. I’d guess that you need ‘otkritvat’/ otkrit’’ for ‘open’, rather than ‘nachatsya’ (which would be more appropriate for opening a meeting). But there may be some funky Russian verb for opening a grave which I’m not aware of. [/QUOTE] The usual phrase for opening a grave in Russian is “vskrivat’ mogilu”, which would probably be translated as “unearthing a grave”. Fun fact: an autopsy, in Russian, is a “vskritiye [trupa]”, or “an opening [of a corpse]”. [QUOTE=Surok] Finally, I’m vaguely wondering whether it should be ‘grob’ rather than ‘mogila’ for grave: ‘mogila’, to me, is closer to ‘tombstone’ although I believe that’s not strictly correct: ‘bratskaya mogila’ means ‘common grave’. [/QUOTE] “Grob” would refer more to the actual coffin. You can use it to mean the whole grave too, though. “Tombstone” would be a “nagrobniy pamyatnik”, or just “pamyatnik” for short - literally, it means “the monument on top of the grave”. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-an-epitaph/448096/7 "2008-05-05T09:50:28Z")
[QUOTE=dougie\_monty] In one of Ripley’s articles, he featured a grave “desecrated by nature.” The inscription on the headstone read (in German) _“Dieses auf ewig erkaufte Begräbniß darf nie geöffnet werden,”_ or “This grave may never be opened.”(A tree trunk split the headstone in two!) I’ve translated that into some other languages but am not sure I’ve done it right… **Spanish:** _“Esta tumba nunca fue abierta.”_ **Russian:** _“Nachatsya eta mogila vospreshchayetsya navsegda.”_ Am I close? [/QUOTE] I like the ‘vospreshchayetsya’ (воспрещается ) part. Vospreshchat’ (воспрещать ) means to forbid, and the -sya (ся ) here indicates a reflexive form, meaning ‘forbids itself’ - which is definitely something that sounds naturally Russian, and I think it connects well to ‘darf **nie** ’ in the German. The problem here is that what forbids itself is ‘to begin’ the grave - and begin here is also reflexive, as ‘forbid’ is, so that makes no sense. To open is ‘otkryt’ (открыть )'. One more thing that is wrong in the translation is that ‘this grave’ is in the nominative but it needs to be in the accusative as it is the object of ‘to open’. So I propose: Otkryt’ etu mogilu vospreshchayetsya navsegda, or ‘открыть эту могилу воспрещается навсегда’ ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-an-epitaph/448096/8 "2008-05-05T11:23:08Z")
[QUOTE=dougie\_monty] **Spanish:** _“Esta tumba nunca fue abierta.”_ [/QUOTE] Which’d be “This tomb was never opened.” I’d go with _Nunca se puede abrir esta tumba_, which uses the impersonal reflexive and translates to any of “You/One can never open this tomb”, “They can never open this tomb”, and “This tomb can never be opened.” ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-an-epitaph/448096/9 "2008-05-05T11:52:33Z")
“Those who are called the Romans, they go the house?” ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-an-epitaph/448096/10 "2008-05-05T22:26:41Z")
Thanks to all. As for Esperanto, I figured: _“Tiu chi tombo devas neniam esti malfermota,”_ using the future passive. I’d like to see it in Greek, French, and Latin if I can… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-an-epitaph/448096/11 "2008-05-05T22:49:24Z")
[QUOTE=Surok] Incidentally, do you have a link to the original article? \ [/QUOTE] I don’t have a link, but it was in Ripley’s Second Series; the Pocket Book edition showed the picture “Desecration by Nature” on Page 170; the book was originally published by Simon and Schuster in 1931.