I am looking to get a tattoo.  i want it to say RISE ABOVE in Latin. 
The context is to rise above all the sadness or petty things in life. 
HELP ME

Michelle

Hi Michelle -

Your phrase sounds like a great sentiment for a tattoo--and for life.

I take it from the English phrase you've given, that your phrase is in
the imperative mood.  Thus the translation of "[you] rise above" is:

                    assurge

If you mean, "I will rise above," then the translation is:

                    assurgam

This is from the infinitive, assurgere, which means "to achieve honor
[above others]." In could definitely mean a victory over the "sadness
or petty things in life.

Other verbs do mean "to rise above," but generally in the context of
battle (superare) or climbing or stepping over (transcendere). Latin
has a word for every nuance.

You can get an idea of this nuance here:
"rise above"
http://catholic.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/lookdown.pl?rise+above

"step over"
http://catholic.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/lookdown.pl?step+over

I also used Cassell's dictionary for my translation.

Cassell's  Latin-English and English-Latin Dictionary revised by
J.R.V. Marchant, M.A. and Joseph F. Charles, B.A., Funk and Wagnell's
(New York)

I hope it's what you are looking for.

alanna-ga

One possibility is transcendere (from which we get 'transcend'):

http://www.selfknowledge.com/100023.htm

Can you clarify what exact meaning you want for the phrase "rise above"?

Do you want *you* to be the subject, so that it conveys "I rise above"
or "I will rise above"?

Do you want the phrase "rise above" to be imperative--that is, to
convey a command or a suggestion to the reader. If so, should it be a
single or plural imperative?

Do you just want it to be "to rise above," just conveying the infinitive.

I suspect that some sort of imperative form is what you want, but it'd
be good to clarify; these are the sorts of distinctions that we don't
always think of in English, but which can dramatically change the
Latin.

Adding to pinkfreud's suggestion of some form of the verb
"transcendere" is what you want, I'm going to suggest some form of the
Latin verb "superare" as a good translation for what you want; it
certainly convey's the idea of overcoming, going above ("super"),
transceding something.

I'm also fond of the verb "exorior", but I think that has more a sense
of "to arise" as "to appear" or "to emanate from", which is a nice
image, but I don't think what you're looking for. (It's also a
deponent verb, and as rusty as I am in my Latin, I'm far rustier on
deponent verb formations... ;-) )

If you want to use "transcendere":

"Transcende": Command--"rise above!" Singular.
"Transcendete": Command--"rise above!" Plural.
"Transcendere": Infinitive--"to rise above"".
"Transcendo": Indiciaive--"I rise above".
"Transcendem": Indicative--"I will rise above".

If you want to use "superare":
"Supera": Command--"surpass!" Singular.
"Superate": Command--"surpass!" Plural.
"Superare": Infinitive--"to surpass".
"Supero": Indicative--"I surpass".
"Superabo": Indicative--"I will surpass".

As much as I like "exorior," I don't think that that's what you're looking for.