Quis es pennipotenti? Nos iustus operor ignoro!

The ‘tag line’ for this site, which explains what marketing types might call our core values, is ‘Quis es pennipotenti? Nos iustus operor ignoro!’ It is the most searched phrase on Google that leads people to the site, yet nobody has asked what it means. [06/02/10 No longer an oft’ searched phrase!] This is most frustrating so I am just going to have to tell you anyway.

I asked some of my pupils for a translation of, ‘What are birds? We just don’t know!’ Within twenty-four hours I was emailed, ‘Quis es pennipotenti? Nos iustus operor ignoro!’ by a member of Upper Remove. Being a sceptical chap, I emailed the Head of Classics who replied,

“What [his] translation lacks in any bare vestige of grammatical accuracy, it makes up for in poetry. Pennipotens is a word only used twice in all of Latin literature, both by the Epicurean philosopher Lucretius, to describe birds. Operor is another rare word which means, ‘I toil’. Not quite sure what that’s about.”

So, not accurate then, but undoubtedly impressive sounding! MRB suggested that a more accurate translation might be, “Quales demum aves? Heu, nescimus!” but he was gracious enough to point out that this lacks the poetry of the original. I took the decision to keep the original and have even added it as a signature to my email.

The more inquiring of you may have been asking yourself why I wanted a translation of, ‘What are birds? We just don’t know!’ The YouTube clip below should explain, particularly between 1.52 and 2.07.

And to those for whom videos are a blocked resource, the full quotation is…

“But what is water? It’s a difficult question because water is impossible to describe. One might ask the same about birds. What are birds? We just don’t know.”

Since then RPSH has furnished me with…

C’est quoi, les oiseaux? Personne ne sait!

and

Was sind denn Voegel? Wir wissen ja nicht!

So I was wondering whether, if you have access to any other languages, you could furnish your own translations?

Swedish? Flemish? Spanish? We could establish the definitive resource…

02/03/10 Swedish from Ludvig…

Wad er faglar? Vi vit varcligen inte!

(I think there might be some special characters missing from this so if anyone can improve it please let me know.)

07/03/10 A Swedish correction from Lukas.

Vad är fåglar? Vi vet bara inte!

05/03/10 Icelandic from Charlie… (I am a little suspicious of this one!)

Hvað eru fuglar? Við dont bara vita?

24/02/12 Urdu from Harry Pataudi (with a little help from his Dad)

Parindey kia hai…….hum ko nahin patta

25/03/12 From Franciumetc – firstly Russian, then Czech

Кто такие птицы? Мы просто не знаем

or

Co jsou ptáci? My prostě nevíme!

Perhaps we need to request pronunciation guides too?

15/08/12 A recent update in Spanish, with a fuller quote – clearly a fan…

“But what is water? It’s a difficult question because water is impossible to describe. One might ask the same about birds. What are birds? We just don’t know.”

“Pero, ¿qué es el agua? Es una pregunta compleja porque es imposible describir el agua. Uno podría preguntar lo mismo acerca de las aves. ¿Qué son las aves? Simple y sencillamente no sabemos”

26/06/14 Thanks to Hipolit for a version in Polish.

Co to są ptaki? My po prostu nie wiemy!

• Hipolit update, Nimo is claiming…

Co to są ptaki? My prostu nie wiemy!

…is in fact the correct translation.

27/03/15 We now have it in Mandarin (with a Hanyu Pinyin phonetic transliteration) courtesy of Mem.

Niao shi shen me? Wo men bu zhi dao.

Please add in the comments anything you can supply. Japanese? Ancient Greek?