"Ita in vita ut in lusu alae pessima jactura arte corrigenda est"
In the text of Moonfleet by Meade Falkner, this phrase is translated to mean
"As in life, so in a game of hazard, skill will make something of the worst of throws".
My question is, should "alae" be more correctly written as "aleam"?
I am seeking to have the motto engraved and considering whether to use the authentic words from the book as written or use a corrected version of the text
The version in lusu alae is quite widespread on the Internet, but it is obviously incorrect (as cnread writes in a comment, that would be a form of ala, “wing”) and not authentic. In Meade Falkner's novel, it says:
Ita in vita ut in lusu aleæ pessima jactura arte corrigenda est.
And that is perfectly correct. Lusus aleae means “the game of dice,” or a game of hazard in general. It is somewhat redundant, as alea by itself (without the lusus) already means as much, but it is attested. You could also write: Ita in vita ut in alea pessima jactura &c.
Aleam is wrong, and I have no idea why it seems right to you. One can say ludere aleam, but it does not follow that you can say lusus aleam, verbal nouns do not work that way.
You did not ask, but I would add that the quote, in my opinion, does not exactly have the meaning ascribed to it. It means: “In life as in a game of hazard, a really bad throw must be corrected by skill (or skillfully).”
(I particularly stress the mistranslation of corrigenda, but also, first writing in Latin: Ita in vita ut in lusu aleae; and then translating this as: As in life, so in a game of hazard, as if the quote wanted to give advice to dice players, seems quite strange.)
