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What is the Latin translation of the meme,

Reply to this post or your mother will die in her sleep tonight.

I intend to put it in a lorem ipsum to see if anyone notices. I know lorem ipsum texts are often very bad or even outright fake Latin, so a loose translation is acceptable. I tried machine translation, but the entire sentence structure changes depending on which English word I substitute for the anachronistic post.

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First, to note, lorem ipsum text isn't really Latin at all—it's based on a Latin source, but heavily mutilated to make it look vaguely English at a casual glance.

However, for a translation, I would say:

nisi huic respondebis mater tua peribit

Or, with nicer punctuation:

Nisi huic respondebis, mater tua peribit.
Unless you respond to this, your mother will die.

I would use the unpunctuated version if you want to hide it in a long stream of text, though.

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  • Could future-perfect "responderis" be used, indicating that one thing will have to be completed before the consequence is invoked? In conditional sentences (simple/ open conditions) this fut. perf./ future linkage is often observed e.g. "si veneris, eum videbis". But, as in your example, sometimes, less frequently, future/ future e.g. "si recto cursu Romam petemus hac nocte in Capitolio epulabimur." Does this subtle difference matter; may the student choose freely?
    – tony
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 9:56
  • @tony Good question! I was taught that it was more common to use the simple future here, but I'm not sure if that's actually how it works.
    – Draconis ♦
    Commented Jan 24, 2020 at 5:38
  • Allen & Greenough p516 (p326, reprint) in "Future Conditions" give good information, on this.
    – tony
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 11:31
  • Rarer still, a double future-perfect: North & Hillard Ex. 206; Q3: "Unless you remind him, he will have forgotten in three days." = "nisi eum admonueris, tribus diebus oblitus erit.". The timeline, second clause, provides the scope for the fut. perf. (I got that one wrong!)
    – tony
    Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 12:09
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Responde nuntium, aliter tua mater in cubiculo nocte morietur.

This phrase reads: "Answer this message, otherwise your mother will die in bed during the night."

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