Extra Meaningful way of saying "I love my children, who are no longer with me"

Question

Not being able to speak Latin I really cannot find a way to say this that I think is satisfactory. (I don't want a Google translate saying that has such personal meaning)

I would like to portray this in the sense of my own children that are alive but not with me. In a way that represents the fact we will be together again in the future and until then I think of them always.

I understand that Latin has singular words for things we have to describe with many. So was hoping someone with experience may know of some words that have exceptional meaning to what I'm wanting to portray.

I have been unable to distinguish how I can have the importance, and in the order of;

The love of my children is most important part then the fact we are not together.

EDIT: As someone pointed out in comments I am talking of one boy and one girl.

So far I have the following;

"Nātōs amō meōs, quī etsī mēcum nōn iam sunt."

"I love them that are born of mine, even if they are not with me"

Answer 1

A relative clause in English often well translated with a participle in Latin. Depending on which way you want to phrase it, you can use absentes (those who are not present) or praesentes (those who are present).

The simplest phrasing would be, I think, filios meos absentes amo, "I love my children who are away". But the nuance needs to be changed a little, and we should also avoid sending the message "I love the absence of my children", which is a valid reading of filios meos absentes amo.

I would prefer to keep the phrasing concise, but of course not at the cost unintended meaning. The simple idiomatic choice seems to be to say add et and say filios meos amo et absentes, "I love my children also when they are away". I find this much more powerful than an unwieldy explanation with relative clauses.

There are ways to say explicitly "no longer" (such as non iam), but with children there is context: they are with you when young and move out when they grow up. When a child is away, I find it implicitly clear enough that they were with you at an earlier time.

What remains is to pick the most suitable words. I find filii to be the most suitable choice for your own children. They are not just boy and girl but son and daughter — liberi sounds too general to me. There are options for "love", for example amare and diligere. I think these are the main two options and both are suitable. You can also use both if you want to emphasize that you feel at your best in their presence and you esteem them highly. I find amare alone to be a better fit. You could also structure the whole thing differently and say something like fili mihi carissimi sunt ("my children are very dear to me"), but I think that diminishes your own agency and I prefer to use an active verb for this purpose.

The word order is pretty flexible but not insignificant. The remark et absentes, "also/even when away", should probably go at the end for clarity. By putting the main verb first you give it a lot of emphasis, and I think your act of love is worth emphasizing.

After these considerations, my suggestion (with a rough translation back to English) is:

Amo filios meos et absentes.
I love my children even when they are away.

If you want to say "far away" instead of just "away", you can change the end to …et longe absentes.

I found a way to put this in dactylic hexameter. Of course it comes with some poetic licence, but I hope I didn't twist the message too much:

Longe absens quoque amatus adest mihi filius omnis.
Also when far away, each child is close to me, loved.

The English translation is rough; if someone can suggest a more fluent phrasing, I'd be happy to hear.

Answer 2

It is good that you clarified your children are still alive, because the English "are no longer with me" can easily sound a bit like a euphemism. It seems your children are in a different place than you; in other words absent, which is in fact derived from the Latin absens. (Absens can in fact also euphemistically refer to a deceased person, but it ususally does not.)

My absent children are absentes liberi mei, and "I love" is of course simply amo.

To stress certain parts of the sentence at the expense of others, in order to perhaps express what is most important, Latin often uses its relatively free word order, isolating certain important words, putting them in a prominent position. But it is difficult to come up with fixed rules.

I suggest: Liberos amo meos absentes. This makes sure that absentes is de-emphasized, which I think is all we need.

Answer 3

How about filios amo etiam absentes (or filias amo etiam absentes if they are all girls) — I love my children [sons] also while they are absent.

EDIT: since it seems you want something different stressing the love, how about emphasizing it by using two different terms for love?

filios amans diligo viatores — loving [my] children, I cherish [them as] wanderers (assuming the separation is temporary)

amanter filios diligo etiam exsules — lovingly, I cherish [my] children also [as] exiles (assuming the separation is permanent)