Thread: Need help with Latin

I have this sentence in Finnish : Kehon kartassa kipu on kompassi.
It's rough translation into English would be : In the map of the body pain is the kompass.
Could someone translate this sentence into Latin and maybe smoothen the English version a bit (hope someone speaking English as their mother thongue could help me out...)

I hope you'll find an answer here, but if not you can try at this forum.

I've had Latin at secondary school, but it was very limited and it's extremely rusty by now :wink:

My daughter is majoring in Latin in college, and I'm sure she could translate from the English to Latin. Trouble is, the motto is puzzling to me in the English translation you provided. Does it have a medical meaning, or what?

I will have to ask my friend about this saying. Please let us know if you find an answer.

You're in luck, I was just recently given a very old and very large Latin-English and English-Latin dictionary to look at. Here's what I came up with... Unfortunately the best definition of compass I could find was specifically a mariner's compass (index nauticus), which was probably the main type of compass used back in those days. I gave two translations. They both mean the same thing, just different word orders (you can be creative in Latin). Go with whichever one sounds best to you. The first one is the straight-from-the-English translation, and the second is more creative. I can't promise it's correct, but I'm quite sure it is. I enjoyed doing that, thanks for giving me the opportunity.

In tabula corporis dolor est index nauticum.

Index nauticum in tabula corporis dolor est.

Originally Posted by MartinT

I have this sentence in Finnish : Kehon kartassa kipu on kompassi.
It's rough translation into English would be : In the map of the body pain is the kompass.
Could someone translate this sentence into Latin and maybe smoothen the English version a bit (hope someone speaking English as their mother thongue could help me out...)

In map of somes poena est complector.

Meanwhile kompass should be 'compass'.

Originally Posted by Harold14370

the motto is puzzling to me in the English translation you provided. Does it have a medical meaning, or what?

In the map of the body

PAIN is the compass

In other words, if the body were a 'map', pain would be the method used to get you going in the right direction.

Not the best motto.....

Originally Posted by Theoryofrelativity

Originally Posted by Harold14370

the motto is puzzling to me in the English translation you provided. Does it have a medical meaning, or what?

In the map of the body

PAIN is the compass

In other words, if the body were a 'map', pain would be the method used to get you going in the right direction.

Not the best motto.....

Yeah, it's a crappy motto. I was hoping it made more sense in Finnish. I picture a physician with some sort of chart of the body. He is using the chart to navigate the patient's body to pinpoint the disease. The patient's pain is helping the physician identify where the disease is. Duh. Or is the body the map? A map of what, itself?

Originally Posted by Harold14370

I was hoping it made more sense in Finnish.

kehon = “(the) body’s / of (the) body” (genitive singular of keho)

kartassa = “in (the) map” (inessive singular of kartta)

kipu = “pain” (nominative singular)

on = “is”

kompassi = “(the) compass” (nominative singular)

Finnish does not have any articles (“the”. “a/an”), so kehon kartassa can mean “in the map of the body”, “in the map of a body”, “in a map of the body”, or “in a map of a body” (but I suppose they all mean more or less the same thing in this context – viz: “in map of body” ).