The Chap

Si vis pacem para bellum ...

This may seem a rather trivial aside, yet I believe that there may be something of worth in the following:

The common trans. of the above Latin usually sidles up with "If y' want peace prepare f'war" (After my abstheth I considered changing my tag do-dah to "If y' want a piece, then pay the whore" ; but that would be rude.)

Yet a moto can lose or gain an awful lot in translation. So ...

"si" is contextual.

"vis" can easily be taken as "seeks", "envisions" (obv!) "sees" etc.

"para" etc... "readies", "is of a ready nature"

"bellum" - tricky here. Do we follow the closest "bellicose" in English?

Hmm. 'can mean suddenly different things ...

Clearly one for those with time on their hands

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Where's the bloody gin? An army marches on its liver, not its ruddy stomach.

Grim

I don't know Latin or Greek but IMO Latin is a language in which the over all context of a statement helps to define the true meaning of a word or few words used there in. It might help to see more of what was said with that short statement.
Some say Homer said "A wise man in times of peace prepares for war" but he was Greek 8 or 7 B.C. That is if there was a Homer. Then there was Aristotle who said "We make war that we may live in peace" he to was also Greek around 3 B.C. Now form Assyria (roughly Iraq) we have around 1 B.C. Publilius Syrus a former Roman slave "We should provide in peace what we need in war". Lastly Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus a Roman is credited with saying "Let him who desires peace prepare for war" around 3 A.D. I'm sure the list could go on.
I don't know what these sayings look like in the original language. Anyway the concept has been around a long time. Probable longer then writing has.

entropy

Si: if

Vis comes from velle, and is in the 2nd person. It means: you want

Pacem: accusative of pax (peace)

Para: imperative of to prepare, parare.

Bellum: war

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If memory serves...

The Chap

I'm delighted ( and surprised ) that there is a response!

I would like to expand this into a thread regarding the "slight" of tongue in mil. situations.

entropy

My knowledge of English fails me here. What does the expression "slight of tongue" mean?

From the first look, what I think it is is the use of informal and slightly obscene expressions used by the soldiers.

The Chap

A "slight" of tongue is used by Officers on French Leave, the tongue something they mostly discover when a bit nervous, on the said leave, usually in a Parisian Knocking Shop sometime during WWI.

Well spotted!

Just like poor Tommy's dick a week later