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I'm trying to translate the lyrics of the Eric Bogle's song The Gift of Years into Latin. One stanza goes like this:

The country that you died for, mate,
you wouldn't know it now.
The future that we dreamed of, mate,
got all twisted up somehow.

My attempt would be:

Terra ad quem mortuus es tunc,
eam non scires nunc.
Ventura quem in somnio videbamus,
ea omnis cambiavit quodam modo.

But I am quite sure there is a better word than "cambiavit". So, which one is it?

1 Answer 1

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I believe torqueo would be appropriate because, when referring to general conditions, the participle can mean confused, complicated or awry.

I would translate it as follows:

Terram cui mortuus es, amice,
iam non cognosceres.
Futura quae somniis videbamus, amice,
aliqua omnino torquentur.

Notes:

  1. Terram should be in the accusative as the object of cognosceres.
  2. The dative is appropriate, so I used cui.
  3. Cognosco expresses recognition, whereas scio doesn't.
  4. Futura is plural, so quae and torquentur have to be in the plural as well.

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