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Motto to Encourage Excellence in Learning Greek

Posted: December 14th, 2011, 12:03 am
by Devenios Doulenios
Χαίρετε πᾶσιν!

To encourage excellence and hard work in learning Greek, I am proposing a Greek version of a family motto which started out in English, which I earlier translated into Spanish and Latin versions and used with my students when I was teaching middle school. In English it is "Do it right or do it over!".

When I was growing up, I heard this often from my maternal grandmother, Janie Cash Gustafson. Before she retired, she worked at a dry cleaner, and every day at work she saw a big sign over the main work area that had the above motto.

The Greek version I propose is: ποίει αὐτὸ ὀρθῶς ἢ ποίει αὐτὸ ἄνωθεν!

I would appreciate your feedback in getting the Greek correct; I'm aiming for an idiomatic translation.

For those who are interested, here are the Spanish and Latin versions:

Español: ¡Hazlo bien o hazlo de nuevo!

Latinē: Fac rectē aut fac dē novō!

Ἐυχαριστῶ ὑμῖν,

Δεβένιος Δουλένιος
Devenios Doulenios


Re: Motto to Encourage Excellence in Learning Greek

Posted: December 14th, 2011, 9:29 am
by Ken M. Penner
Devenios Doulenios wrote:ποίει αὐτὸ ὀρθῶς ἢ ποίει αὐτὸ ἄνωθεν!
I would omit αὐτό.

Re: Motto to Encourage Excellence in Learning Greek

Posted: December 14th, 2011, 5:04 pm
by Stephen Carlson
Ken M. Penner wrote:
Devenios Doulenios wrote:ποίει αὐτὸ ὀρθῶς ἢ ποίει αὐτὸ ἄνωθεν!
I would omit αὐτό.
I would also agree.

Re: Motto to Encourage Excellence in Learning Greek

Posted: December 14th, 2011, 7:45 pm
by Mark Lightman
I might shorten it even more:


ποίει ὀρθῶς ἢ ἄνωθεν!

Re: Motto to Encourage Excellence in Learning Greek

Posted: December 14th, 2011, 11:41 pm
by Louis L Sorenson
and front it

ὀρθῶς ποίει ἢ ἄνωθεν.

The words ποιῶ ὀρθω- / ποιῶ ὀρθο occur many, many times in the same context. Here are a few:

Dionysius Halicarnassensis Hist., Rhet., Epistula ad Pompeium Geminum
Chapter 1, section 1, line 9
ὀρθῶς ποιεῖς·
Cassius Dio Hist., Historiae Romanae
Book 52, chapter 38, section 2, line 2
εἴτε ὀρθῶς τι ποιεῖς εἴτε καὶ μή,
Gregorius Nazianzenus Theol., Epistulae
Epistle 79, section 1, line 7
τοῦτο μὲν ὀρθῶς ποιεῖς,

Re: Motto to Encourage Excellence in Learning Greek

Posted: December 15th, 2011, 10:13 pm
by Devenios Doulenios
ἔχω χάριν (cf. Heb. 12:28) πᾶσιν οις ἀπεκρίθησαν. ἐυδοκεῖ μοι τι ειπεν τὸν Λεωνίδαν (Louis). :D

Δεβένιος