tua res agitur

[jsqu...@gmail.com]

What would be the best translation
of

"tua res agitur"

which best captures the grammar
semantics of that "agitur"?

[Evertjan.]

"jsqu...@gmail.com" <jsqu...@gmail.com> wrote on 09 mrt 2015 in
alt.language.latin:

Me thinks asking for "the best" is nonsense,
translations stink, they loose exactness,
especially if you don't give context.

"This/it concerns you", perhaps?

Why didn't you give context, btw?

"Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet."

wrote Horatio in Epistularum liber primus, xviii, linea 84.

Better try to translate that yourself,
or look it up with Google if you are too lazy.


--
Evertjan.
The Netherlands.
(Please change the x'es to dots in my emailaddress)

[Ed Cryer]

Evertjan. wrote:
> "jsqu...@gmail.com" <jsqu...@gmail.com> wrote on 09 mrt 2015 in
> alt.language.latin:
>
>> What would be the best translation
>> of
>>
>> "tua res agitur"
>>
>> which best captures the grammar
>> semantics of that "agitur"?
>
> Me thinks asking for "the best" is nonsense,
> translations stink, they loose exactness,
> especially if you don't give context.
>
> "This/it concerns you", perhaps?
>
> Why didn't you give context, btw?
>
> "Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet."
>
> wrote Horatio in Epistularum liber primus, xviii, linea 84.
>
> Better try to translate that yourself,
> or look it up with Google if you are too lazy.
>
>

I'd not read this Epistula of Horace before. I'm glad I have done now.
The lines following this quote are highly stylish and memorable.

Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet,
et neglecta solent incendia sumere uires. 85
Dulcis inexpertis cultura potentis amici;
expertus metuit. Tu, dum tua nauis in alto est,
hoc age, ne mutata retrorsum te ferat aura.
Oderunt hilarem tristes tristemque iocosi,
sedatum celeres, agilem nauumque remissi;

Ed

[jsqu...@gmail.com]

unfortunately, I do not have the context.
Someone sent me just those three words
wanting, I know not why, what they mean.

Not having the context or the circumstance,
I'm inclined to go with the straight forward

"this concerns you"

[Ed Cryer]

Yes. That's the gist of it.

A bit like David Cameron's "We're all in this together".
Horace might have said "Tua res agitur. Mea res agitur. Nostra res agitur."
"No man is an island. We are all part of the
continent...........Therefore send not to ask for whom the bell tolls.
It tolls for thee."

Ed

[jsqu...@gmail.com]

On Monday, March 9, 2015 at 12:56:51 PM UTC-7, jsqu...@gmail.com wrote:

Ed, I agree. Having thought about it
a bit, and having found the moderately
famous quote form Horace, I conclude
that

"tua res agitur"

points at the Horace quote

"nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet"

and at the various meanings of it which you just
gave.



It also resonates a bit, does it not, with,

"custodes fratriis mei sum"

(forgive any errors in my recollection
of Bible Latin)

Thank you all for your thoughtful help.

[Ed Cryer]

Horace was no Stoic. You don't get lofty moral maxims from him. He calls
himself "a little porker from the sty of Epicurus", and his solution to
the problems of life is to bring out the wine and dancing girls.
I do wonder about him sometimes, though. He was an excellent wordsmith;
he could play with the Latin language like no one else. He has a
reputation similar to that of Dylan Thomas, whose last words are often
quoted as "“I’ve had 18 straight whiskies; I think that’s the record.”
And yet when you listen to the puritanical voice in his recordings
(especially "Under Milk Wood") and read about how he took so much effort
over single words, well, I get cause for pause.

I think both of those poets were "playing the poet". It's something to
be, like John Lennon's "working-class hero". It's mapped out for you,
people know how to respond to it, the role exists in the culture of the
times.

Ed

[jsqu...@gmail.com]

On Monday, March 9, 2015 at 12:56:51 PM UTC-7, jsqu...@gmail.com wrote:

The "tua res agitur" quote apparently was
found by a friend at the end of the "Epilogue"
to Husserl's book "Ideas", and there used
with the same sense as we have arrived
at here in this little series of exchanges.