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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread A Latin phrase of Coleridge's #177741 06/24/2008 6:19 PM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra addict Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631  Quote: Eheu! quam infortunii miserrimum est fuisse felicem! Can anyone translate? For context: It was written on the wall of a stable by a young and in debt S. T. Coleridge while serving in the 15th Light Dragoons as a stable hand, having failed to secure a much-needed scholarship, having been expelled from Cambridge, having failed to win the Irish lottery. (In pursuit of this last mad hope he had even beseeched an unsympathetic Lady Fortune in a poem published in a London newspaper). Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: A Latin phrase of Coleridge's Hydra #177747 06/24/2008 10:46 PM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 The miserrimum looks funny, but if you make it Eheu! quam infortunii miserum est fuisse felicem! it comes out something like 'Alas, happiness is as possible as misery for the unfortunate.' Perhaps Nuncle Z can set us straight. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: A Latin phrase of Coleridge's Faldage #177748 06/24/2008 11:36 PM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass tsuwm Carpal Tunnel tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass here's a (looser) translation, which at least seems to make a little more sense, to me: "Alas how much the worst part of misfortune it is to have once been happy." Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: A Latin phrase of Coleridge's Hydra #177750 06/25/2008 12:09 AM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 6,511 lower upstate New York AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 6,511 lower upstate New York Meanwhile, Hydra, I am tsking at your double genitive. I mean, I like an apostrophe as much as the next greengrocer, but. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: A Latin phrase of Coleridge's AnnaStrophic #177752 06/25/2008 12:50 AM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803  Originally Posted By: AnnaStrophic Meanwhile, Hydra, I am tsking at your double genitive. I mean, I like an apostrophe as much as the next greengrocer, but. "of Coleridge's"? Ain' nothin' wrong with that. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: A Latin phrase of Coleridge's Faldage #177760 06/25/2008 4:27 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra addict Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Thank you Faldage and tsuwm. AnnaStrophic, what? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: A Latin phrase of Coleridge's Faldage #177763 06/25/2008 7:00 AM Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh The miserrimum looks funny It's the superlative form of miser 'wretched, miserable, unhappy'. tsuwm's already done the heavy lifting. According to none footnote (in Google Books), it's an allusion to Boethius: in omni adversitate fortunae, infelicissimum genus est infortunii fuisse felicem. ("In every reverse of fortune, the most unhappy condition of misfortune is to have known happiness", link) Ceci n'est pas un seing. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: A Latin phrase of Coleridge's zmjezhd #177769 06/25/2008 12:47 PM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra addict Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Thanks again fellas. I've since done a little reading on that double-genitive plaint of yours, AnnaStrophic. Quite the prescriptivist, aren't we? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: A Latin phrase of Coleridge's Hydra #177778 06/25/2008 5:34 PM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 6,511 lower upstate New York AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 6,511 lower upstate New York  Originally Posted By: Hydra Thanks again fellas. I've since done a little reading on that double-genitive plaint of yours, AnnaStrophic. Quite the prescriptivist, aren't we? Oh, yeah. and apparently still ignorant enough not to have realized that dry wit silly humor and double-cross-threading (yes! two hyphens!!) need at least a smiley to signal intent. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. 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