How would you translate

velocior animus est improborum hominum

(from Columella's De Re Rustica)

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 28 Mar 2004 12:10 PST

My own take on this is that it means "Man's swift spirit is wicked."

However, I am just a dabbler in Latin. I strongly suggest that you
wait for an answer from hlabadie-ga, who is a true scholar and the
best authority on Latin translations that Google Answers has to offer.

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Clarification of Question by bugbear-ga on 28 Mar 2004 12:59 PST

It's more along the lines of "unruly men have quicker understandings"
I think.  I just wanted to make sure.  If you have any way of contacting
hlabadie and pointing him at this q, by all means go ahead.  Thanks!

Dear bugbear,

I have analyzed the phrase in context, considering the various
possible translations. Here is what I regard as the translation that
gets across the content of the original best:

- Original, in direct context -
Minus in hoc officio, quam in ceteris, agricolatio frugalitatem
requirit, quia et in turba et sub monitore vinitor opus facere debet.
Ac plerumque velocior animus est improborum [hominum], quem desiderat
huius operis conditio.

- Translation -
Less for this service than for all the others, agriculture requires
frugality, because both in commotion and under a preceptor the
wineyard worker must do his work. And besides, a swift mind commonly
is with the immoderate man who leaves this pre-requisite to be
desired.

So the short segment you provided would translate as: "A swift mind is
with the immoderate man".


Source of the Latin text:

The Latin Library: Iunius Moderatus Columella - De re rustica, liber primus
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/columella.rr1.html

Hope this helps!
Regards,
Scriptor

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Request for Answer Clarification by bugbear-ga on 28 Mar 2004 15:33 PST

Hmm, immoderate?  The Loeb translation has honesty for frugalitatem
and unruly for improborum.  Doesn't that make more sense in the
context?

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Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 28 Mar 2004 16:28 PST

Well, the Latin dictionary database I used (not online), offers
various meanings for "improborum (improbus)": wicked/flagrant, morally
unsound, greedy/rude, immoderate, disloyal, shameless.

According to that source, "frugalitatem (frugalitas)" could translate
as frugality, economy, honesty.

It is not easy to reconstruct the original intention of the author.
But the contrast between duteous rural frugality (after all one of the
old Roman ideals)
and immodesty, the lack of the conservativeness and humble sedulity
that is necessary for rural life as demanded by the mos maiorum (the
"ways of the ancestors") appeared obvious to me. Roman authors often
wrote in favor of traditional simplicity of life, so I decided to
interpret those sentences as a moral statement referring to certain
values that were important to the Romans.

Scriptor

Thanks!

Improborum can have many meanings:

"Improborum...  
 shameless; cruel; wicked, morally unsound; disloyal, ill-disposed" 

http://www.iclub.lv/dainis/Phaedrus_Aesopus%20ad%20quendam%20de%20Successu%20Improborum_Logos.htm