Q:

Help getting a terse Latin translation of a semi-idiomatic English phrase

I'm interested in getting a Latin translation of the following: "The way forward is the way through." (Think of having to overcome a difficulty — to move forward you have to go through the difficulty.)
I came up with est via deinceps quod est via per but I feel like this is not correct.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

A:

How about prodire est transire, "to go forward is to go through"?
Instead of "way", I used the verb ire, which I think fits nicely.
You should check whether prodire and transire sounds suitable either using the links or picking any of the many online Latin dictionaries.
It would be tempting to translate "to go through" as perire, but this verb actually means "to die", "to perish", and similar.
Your translation suggestion sounds much like Google Translate, and it is horrible for Latin.
A far more reliable way to come up with mottoes in Latin is to find two words in an actual Latin dictionary and translate "X is Y" as X est Y.
And of course the best option of all is to ask on this site…

