How do you say, properly, life is short in Latin

garagecapital

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Mar 8, 2009, 3:36:31 AM3/8/09

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Is it simply vita brevis? Vitae brevis? Am I missing a verb?

Dann McNulty

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Mar 8, 2009, 4:03:12 AM3/8/09

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On Mar 8, 2:36 am, garagecapital <garagecapi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is it simply vita brevis? Vitae brevis? Am I missing a verb?

The Romans sometimes left out the verb 'est' but to say 'life is
short' in it's entirety it would be ' vita est brevis '

Dann

garagecapital

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Mar 8, 2009, 4:08:07 AM3/8/09

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What is vitae brevis then?

Johannes Patruus

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Mar 8, 2009, 4:18:51 AM3/8/09

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Indeed, in Seneca's original, the verb is included:

"Inde illa maximi medicorum exclamatio est: vitam brevem esse, longam artem."

http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sen/sen.brevita.shtml (§I.2).

Patruus

Johannes Patruus

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Mar 8, 2009, 4:23:01 AM3/8/09

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"Of a short life" (genitive singular).

Patruus

Dann McNulty

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Mar 8, 2009, 4:42:58 AM3/8/09

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Just to clear up Seneca's original text up for our inquirer above, the
phrase 'life is short' as found here, if I am not mistaken, is an
indirect statement. 'Vita est brevis' as a stand alone statement
turns into 'vitam brevem esse' as in indirect statement, This is
hallmarked by an accusative subject and an infinitive verb form. Here
we have 'vitam' as the accusative subject, 'esse' as the infinitive
verb form of 'est' and 'brevem' as the predicate accusative (a
predicate nominative in the stand alone statement.)

garagecapital

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Mar 8, 2009, 5:41:37 AM3/8/09

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Is Vitae brevis a phrase? With the 'e' on Vita?

Mark Rae

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Mar 8, 2009, 7:26:36 AM3/8/09

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"garagecapital" <garage...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:b9b9d569-df42-4841...@33g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...

> Is Vitae brevis a phrase? With the 'e' on Vita?

As JP said, 'vitae brevis' is perfectly grammatical and means 'of a short
life'.

E.g. if you wanted to say 'the story of a short life' you might say 'vitae
brevis fabula'.

But the phrase which is commonly used to denote 'life is short' is 'vita
brevis'. As has also been noted, the verb isn't required here, and you could
equally well translate the phrase as 'a / the short life'.

cf
http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=s0&oq="vita%20brevis"&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GPTB_en-GBGB298GB298&q=vita+brevis+ars+longa

Ed Cryer

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Mar 8, 2009, 8:17:46 AM3/8/09

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"Johannes Patruus" <inv...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
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Who was the maximus medicorum?

Ed

Johannes Patruus

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Mar 8, 2009, 8:55:43 AM3/8/09

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The guy whose eponymous oath is violated by euthanizing physicians.

> Ed

Patruus

Ed Cryer

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Mar 8, 2009, 9:25:56 AM3/8/09

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"Johannes Patruus" <inv...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message

news:71htihF...@mid.individual.net...

Hippocrates? Right, so the original would have been in Greek.
In fact it was, with more;
Ὁ βίος βραχύς, ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή, ὁ δὲ καιρὸς ὀζύς, ή δὲ πεῖρα σφαλερή, ἡ
δὲ κρίσις χαλεπή.

Latin translation: Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps,
experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile.

English translation: Life is short, [the] craft long, opportunity
fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgement difficult.

Ed