Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.
Latin to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature | | Latin term or phrase: Larvatus prodeo | the author is questioning the idea of a mother tongue, he doesn't feel like he has one.
"Perhaps," he says, "i have no mother tongue.
For at times, as i listen to the words of English as they emerge from my mouth, i have a disquieting sense that the one i hear is not the one i call "myself." Rather, it as though some other person (but who?) is being imitated, followed, even mimicked. Larvatus prodeo."
i discovered this is an expression used by actors wearing masks in Roman plays, indicating that he is coming forth with a mask, but what it really comes to mean in the context?
i'm translating the text into turkish, and surely shall leave the expression as it is, but there is the need to explain (first of all, to myself) what the whole thing means, even if as a footnote |
| vitaminBcomplexKudoZ activityQuestions: 210 (none open) ( 1 without valid answers) ( 6 closed without grading) Answers: 0
| Local time: 08:31
|
| | I go forward bewitched/masked. | Explanation:
'Larva' means both 'ghost' and 'mask' and 'larvare' means 'to bewitch, enchant', 'larvatus' being the masculine perfect passive participle of this verb. There is a pun here and the notion conveyed is of a ghost issuing from the grave, just as an actor issued masked from the sides or back of the stage. |
| Selected response from:
 Joseph J. Brazauskas
United States
Local time: 01:31
| Grading comment thanx
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer |
| |
| Discussion entries: 0 |
|---|
Automatic update in 00:
|
21 mins confidence:   peer agreement (net): +1
1 hr confidence:
Return to KudoZ list
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | |
| KudoZ™ translation helpThe KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases. See also: Search millions of term translations  |
The translation workplace 
