What does 'Manet omnes una nox estacao' mean?

Answer 1

The Latin sentence 'Manet omnes una nox estacao' contains an error. For the word 'estacao' is Portuguese for 'post, season, station or stay'. The word-by-word translation of the correct sentence is the following: 'manet' means '[he/she/it] endures, lasts, remains or stays'; 'omnes' means 'all'; 'una' means 'one'; and 'nox' means 'night'. The English meaning therefore is as follows: All stay for one night.

There are problems other than 'estacao'. 'Manet is third person singular. 'Omnes' is plural, so that could not be the subject of 'manet'. "Una nox' is nominative, so that could be the subject, but that doesn't make sense. Since it is nominative, it couldn't be 'for one night' - that would require an accusative construction. All in all, it's so garbled there is no possible translation.

Next contribution : maybe there is. This is quoted by the Professor in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, so I'm researching it. Looks like faulty grammar, first off (my Latin's rusty, but not fossilised, yet) : I'd have expected manet omnibus (dative) or something like that (roughly one night remains to us all), but it might work as manet, omnes, (vocative) una nox. My problem is partly solved by seeing this traffic online. I had been wondering whether the Prof. is mis-quoting. but it would seem not!