Fiddleronthecoast wrote:
Hi, I have a few translation questions to ease my own mind and one for a new tattoo I want to get. I have several tattoos. Two of them are phrases in Gaelic. I got them when I was young and not smart enough to triple check so I'm curious if they actually say what they're supposed to say. Either way, they're a part of me and I know the intention, so that's what counts, but still... knowing they don't accidentally talk about a cow or something would be nice.
The first one, I made the mistake of using Google Translate 'cause I didn't know any better, but hopefully it's such a simple phrase that it'll be okay.
1: "Follow your dreams." Google gave me "Gabh le d'aislingí" (I've at least seen 'aislingí' listed in other translation topics with 'dream' involved, so I'm encouraged...)
The second, I asked my Irish fiddle teacher at the time, who was learning Gaelic. A slightly better step, but still only one source.
2: "This is water" which I was told "Tá sé uischa."
Finally, the new tattoo I want to get is "I am enough." I'm not in any rush as this tattoo joins a list of tattoos in my head, but I know this can take time so I wanted to jump on finding a proper translation.
Thanks so much to everyone and anyone who looks that this (especially if you made it this far).
I appreciate the assistance. Have a great one!
The first tattoo,
"Gabh le d'aislingí", may actually work. At first glance, it appears to mean somewhat literally "go with your dreams", but the verb
gabh has a great many uses, and I found some examples in the dictionary indicating that "follow" or "fulfill" are possible meanings as well, especially in this context. One could debate whether it would have been better to use
brionglóid, instead of
aisling, since
aisling arguably refers more to a vision than a dream, but it is also used for dreams, so I'd say it's fine, and I think it's undeniable that people seeing the tattoo who speak irish will understand what you mean.
Unfortunately, I have some bad news about the second tattoo. "Tá sé uischa" has grammatical, vocabulary, and spelling issues.
To take the spelling issue first, in Irish the word for "water" is
uisce, not "uischa" (that combination of letters actually can't happen in Irish orthography).
The vocabulary issue is that, in order to say "this", you'd need to add "
seo", resulting in "
sé seo" or "
é seo", depending on the context.
The grammatical issue is that Irish has two verbs for "to be" or, more precisely, one verb plus what's know as the "copula". If you know Spanish, it's basically the same as the situation with the verbs "ser" and "estar". Instead of "
tá" the sentence requires the use of the copula, giving you:
Is uisce é seo" or "
Is é seo uisce", the latter of which can be abbreviated to either:
'Sé seo uisce (with an apostrophe at the beginning) or
Sé seo uisce (leaving out the apostrophe).
The new tattoo should probably be "
Is mise [féin] go leor" ("I [myself] am enough"). You don't technically need the word "
féin" ("[my]self"), but it emphasizes that all that is needed is you
yourself, and it sounds more natural as well (Irish uses the word "
féin" quite a lot). In sentences like that, people sometimes leave out the "
Is" at the beginning, leaving you with "
Mise féin go leor", but I think I'd keep it in this case, for the sake of clarity.