I would like a translation of "Set Yourself On Fire" to Latin

Question

This is for a mock heraldic emblem. The entire phrase is "If there is nothing to burn/Set yourself on fire".

For final portion, I came to like "IPSI IN IGNIBUS INCENDITE "? That is emphatic pronoun (instead of SIBI) dative, pl imperative verb, prep, ablative plural object of prep?

I last studied latin in 8th grade, and I wasn't that great at it even then.

Answer 1

You don't need any form of ignis because the verb incendo by itself already means "to set on fire". And it looks like you're addressing a single person ("set yourself on fire" rather than "yourselves"), so the imperative should be singular. So you could go with:

Incendi te ipsum.

Here te ipsum "yourself" is accusative because it's the direct object (as well as the subject) of incendi "set on fire". The structure is parallel to that of the well-known phrase Nosce te ipsum "Know thyself".

Answer 2

Thomas,

It can be very difficult to translate English expressions into Latin. Fortunately, this phrase is relatively simple and so requires less explanation than many.

One common Latin verb that means "set (something) on fire" is "incendo, incendere, incendi, incensus" (though there are others with the same meaning). "Set yourself on fire" is a command, so the verb needs to be in the imperative. If you are commanding one person, then you use the singular imperative form for a third-conjugation o-type verb, which is "incende". If you are commanding more than one person, then you use the plural imperative form "incendite".

"Yourself" is the second-person-singular reflexive pronoun, and since it is the direct object of "set on fire", you would use the accusative "te". The use of the English singular reflexive pronoun "yourself" rather than the plural "yourselves" makes it clear that you are commanding a single person, and so you have to use the singular imperative form "incende" with this.

You can then translate the phrase as "Incende te", or if you want to add some extra emphasis on the "selfness", you can translate it "Incende te ipsum". "Ipsum" is an intensifying adjective, which on its own means "myself / ourselves / yourself / yourselves / himself / herself / itself / themselves", the translation depending on the noun it modifies, and so it means "yourself" in this context. This extra word isn't necessary since "te" already means "yourself" on its own, but it does add some poetic flair and is not an uncommon flourish in Latin literature.

Therefore, two possible translations are:

"Incende te"

and

"Incende te ipsum"

Your choice of translation may depend on the space available on the emblem.

I hope this helps. Ave atque vale!

Magister Andrew