Hi all,

I'm looking for a translation for a tattoo.

I would like to translate Breathe Forgive Live as 3 separate words into Ogham. I understand that Ogham is an alphabet but the research I've done also suggests that writing 'breathe forgive live' isn't necessarily as simple as selecting the letters from the alphabet.

I know that translation isn't necessarily apples to apples but I would like the intention of the tattoo to read like a reminder statement, as though reminding someone "TO" breathe, forgive, live.

Thanks in advance!

Tara

Hello Tara,

Would you like your ogham tattoo to represent the English words or to represent an Irish translation?

Cúmhaí

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That's a good question--I hadn't really considered translating the English into Ogham. I feel that it makes sense to translate the English but at the same time feel that an Irish translation would be more fitting.

I don't suppose it would be possible to see what both would look like?

Thanks in advance,

Tara

I would love to but I am a bit daunted.

Interestingly (is it a coincidence or are you intentionally challenging us?) all of the three words in your requested translation are difficult.

"Breathe" is difficult (if even possible) to translate into Irish as one word
"Forgive" when used as a command (Maith!) looks ambiguous like an adjective with a very different meaning ("good")
"Live" is difficult because there are many Irish words that can be translated as "live" but with different meanings none of which correspond exceedingly well with the English

In short I think someone bolder will have to give it a shot!

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It figures the words that resonate most with me would be difficult--seems the easy way is never my way

Would this make any kind of sense?

análaithe maith maireachtáil

Not one to trust search engine translations but this was sifting through the verb options, etc.

Tara

hahaha no! definitely not!!

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What people should have explained is that Irish is more noun-oriented than verb-oriented, so some simple verbal expressions cannot be expressed as succinctly in Irish as in English (English is a much more flexible language than most). For example, the normal way to say "to breathe" is to say "to draw breath". As already noted, the verb maith all by itself is very ambiguous, because maith is also an adjective meaning "good". The verb mair can mean "live", but again there's ambiguity, because it can also mean "endure", and that would introduce a nuance which you don't seem likely to want.

If you can live with some extra words, here are some possibilities:

Tarraing anáil
Breathe! ["Draw breath!"]

Maith dó
Forgive him/it! [adding the pronoun eliminates the ambiguity]

Bain ceol as an saol
Enjoy life! [a traditional expression, literally meaning "draw music from life"]

If that's all adding up to too much, you could shorten the third one to:
Bain sult as
Enjoy [it]!

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

I think the best way to translate 'Forgive' is 'Tabhair maithiúnas' - literally 'give /grant forgiveness', but more natural-sounding in Irish.

That would create some nice alliteration:
Tarraing anáil
Tabhair maithiúnas
...

You might even extend the alliteration in the third clause with something like this:
Teigh ar aghaidh
"Go on forward"

Someone else may be able to think of a better third clause.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

eek!

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