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I worked an estate sale a few years ago and the experience has never left me. The man who passed away left this note on a chalk board and I found a photo of it the other day. I have wondered what it says ever since! I took Latin in college, but it was so long ago and I don't have my books anymore. I believe it says something about speaking or praying to God.
"ora deo sed ab saxis remiga"
Any help?
Pray to God but row away from the rocks.
You are correct in that ora means "pray" (it is the singular imperative of oro). Deo (dative of Deus) is the "to God" bit. Sed means "but," ab saxis (ablative plural) means "away from the rocks," and finally remiga is the singular imperative of remigo meaning "row."
Now, the meaning of the quote, as I take it, is thus: look to God if you are in trouble, but do not expect a sudden, divine intervention to occur. You have to take matters into your own hands if you have a problem (row away from the rocks). I cannot find if this comes from somewhere specific, so if someone does find that, it would be interesting to hear.
Edit
The user Jay says this, which is what I was trying to get at in my original answer:
This seems a pretty routine Christian belief. There's a common saying among Christians today, "Pray as if everything depended on God; work as if everything depended on you." In the Bible, God routinely expected people to do all they could even if he performed a miracle. Like he would promise victory in battle, but the soldiers still had to go out and fight. Even if there was nothing practical a person could do, God often demanded a token effort. Like Naaman had to dunk himself in the Jordan River before God would cure his leprosy. Etc.
Many details show that this sentence cannot be ancient (and in fact there is no trace of it in the usual places). While there are no obvious mistakes, it is clear that it is a literal translation from English with no attempt to produce idiomatic Latin. This does not mean that the translator didn’t know enough Latin: the purpose might have been humoristic.
In fact, it is the translation of Call on God but row away from the rocks.
As you can see, it is a rather popular quote whose origin might prove hard to trace. Some sites claim it is an American Indian proverb. I seriously doubt it, because, as other users have explained marvelously, the idea is deeply rooted in Christianity. I don’t think it is of Southern European origin either: on our shores, the one to pray for safety at sea is Maria, Stella Maris.
There is one particular point which I’d like to discuss in this context. In English (and many related languages), the normal way to express motion is to choose a verb which shows the mode of displacement, while the direction is expressed by a complement. In English you walk down the hill. In Latin (and in Romance languages) pedibus a colle descendis, with a directional verb and a complement of manner. So, when translating row away from the rocks, it is not idiomatic to use the very specific verb remigo, which is meant for a situation with a very strong focus on rowing. My own translation of the same sentence would be something like
Precibus Deum invocans remis a rupibus navem averte.
The OP asked in a comment:
He canoed all the time and even invented a canoe paddle... so I wonder if he specifically chose that verb remigo for this translation given his love of canoeing?
Well, it’s difficult to say. Most probably his love of canoeing influenced his choice of a quote, but no, I don’t think his literal translation was also influenced.
