Glossary entry

Latin term or phrase:

"Ipsa subibo humeris; nec me labor ipse gravabit"

English translation:

I myself shall take [you] on my shoulders; and this task won't be a burden to me.

    The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2010-08-28 06:54:11 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
Aug 24, 2010 09:36
14 yrs ago
Latin term

"Ipsa subibo humeris; nec me labor ipse gravabit"

Non-PRO Latin to English Art/Literary History
The above is quoted in one of Capt. James Cook's log books (Cook's Voyages of Discovery). Via a Google search I found another KudoZ discussion that indicates that the second part at least is a quotation or adaptation from Virgil's Aeneid, and means roughly "nor will this task be a burden to me". Does the first part come from the same source, and what does it mean? (From long ago, dimly remembered Latin lessons I'm guessing something like "I'll take this upon my shoulders" or "I'll undertake this").

Discussion

Stephen C. Farrand Aug 27, 2010:
Parsing of "ipsa" No. Ipse is an emphatic rather than demonstrative pronoun. If it were neuter plural here, it would have no referent (antecedent); emphasizing an undefined "things" just does not make sense.

Here's the Lewis and Short definition: "αὐτός, self, in person, he (emphatic), himself, herself, itself, used both substantively and adjectively, to denote that person (thing) of which something is eminently or exclusively predicated." The qualities of eminence or exclusivity just do not apply to something undefined.

Moreover, as I said, this is a close variant on a quotation from the Aeneid, which the author surely knew. There it is ipse, nom. masc., referring to Aeneas (a natural, idiomatic use of the word).
ianjohnstone (asker) Aug 27, 2010:
Parsing of "ipsa" As I indicated in my original question it has been many years (50+) since my last Latin lesson, so this is only a tentative suggestion, but isn't "ipsa" more likely to be neuter/accusative/plural than feminine/singular?

Proposed translations

+4
4 hrs
Selected

I myself shall take [you] on my shoulders; and this task won't be a burden to me.

The problem is ipsa is not in the original; it should be ipse (nom.masc.). This intensive/reflexive pronoun is not often used independently as an object.

Cook may well have known Latin well enough to play with the original. Ipsa requires a feminine subject: the Endeavour itself, perhaps? (navis "ship" is feminine in Latin).

The source is Aeneid II.708.
Peer comment(s):

agree Rebecca Garber : The gender change would make sense, as Aeneas is carrying his father in the quote, and navis and navigatio are both feminine.
1 hr
agree Jennifer White : This version is more likely IMO. There is no obvious object of subibo
1 day 5 hrs
agree Michael McCann : Thank you, Stephen, for the precise location in the Aeneid. One translation of this text is given as "I will hold my shoulders ready for you; this labour of love will be no weight to me."
3 days 7 hrs
agree Joseph Brazauskas
3 days 7 hrs
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks to all who replied or commented. The choice of "most helpful" was pretty much a coin toss."
+3
47 mins

I shall place these things on my shoulders; nor will this task burden me down.

I cannot say whether both parts of the quotation come from Virgil or not.

My translation is quite literal, and may be better expessed as " I shall undertake these things". I think that the "ipse" [itself] in the second part is a typo, or maybe a deliberate one at that for "iste" [that] - the demonstrative adjective "that" = "nor will that job/task/labour be any trouble to me/ any burden" etc.

Yes, it was Captain Cook's motto on his travels, but it also a common motto of the Middle Ages.

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Note added at 3 days12 hrs (2010-08-27 21:50:51 GMT)
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Stephen gave the precise location of the text in the Aeneid as II, 708. The Latin reads "`Ergo age, care pater, cervici imponere nostrae; ipse subibo umeris, nec me labor iste gravabit." [Translated by an unstated author as "Come now, dear father, you must let them lift you onto my back. I will hold my shoulders ready for you; this labour of love will be no weight to me.]

The final "ipse" was as I suspected a typo for "iste".
Peer comment(s):

agree Celia Bodnar
1 hr
agree Olga Cartlidge
3 hrs
agree Veronika McLaren
5 hrs
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