Hello fellow irish lovers! Recently I took a trip to Ireland and fell in love with the land and the kind people.
It has inspired me to write a novel and I need help with on one of my translations that I can't seem to get.
Friends and acquaintances have helped me with the others but I just can't seem to get a straight translation:/
I'm trying to translate "It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves" by William Shakespeare (Yes this is a romance novel)
if anyone could help that would be great.
Here's the translation I have received thus far (I think a generic translator was used)




nach bhfuil sé i na réaltaí a shealbhú i ndán dúinn ach i dúinn féin

Oh dear. Don't go with that. I'm thinking a dictionary was used, by someone who doesn't know Irish and just plugged Irish phrases into English syntax (hint: It doesn't work that way!).

This is actually a pretty complex sentence. Let us have a couple of days to work it out (and do wait for three here to be in agreement before proceeding!)

Redwolf

Thank you so much! This is the hardest translation yet since my other translations were all simple words not phrases.
I appreciate any help you can offer!

OK - a literal translation to get things rolling. It's not going to hold the same weight as it does in English, but it's a start:

Ní hé sna réaltaí a chumtar ár gcinniúint, ach ionainn féin

Roughly: It's not in the stars our destinies are created, but in ourselves. Sounds a bit clunky in English, it's not quite as bad in Irish.

Wait for more though.

Just thought I'd add a smidgeon of pedanticism to the cake...

It seems that the actual quote from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is,

The fault, (dear Brutus,) is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.


An locht go ndéanann íochtaráin dínn níl sna réaltaí s’againn ach ionainn féin.
The fault that makes us underlings lies not in our stars but in ourselves.

or shorter

Níl an locht sna réaltaí s'againn ach ionainn féin.
The fault isn't in our stars but in ourselves.

Of course wait for other more poetic suggestions.

I always caution against using embedded other-language speech in prose.

Remember, a book is not television! While hearing other people speak their language can be used to great effect (it can highlight the "otherness" of the bad guys, or it can involve you in the protagonist's sense of being out-of-place), on paper, it breaks the illusion.

When you read, your brain reconstructs the sounds of the language as part of understanding the written form. But unless you speak and read Irish, your brain can't make any sense of the letter combinations, and you don't "hear" anything, which means you're no longer reading. It pulls the reader out of the book, and returns then to being nothing more than a person looking at a page.

As a result, it also messes up your timing, as there are two strategies readers employ in these circumstances: either the eye just slides across the page, ignoring the weird words (faster than your intended pace) or they stop and try to consciously sound out the word (muuuuuch slower than your intended pace).

Tolkien was bad enough for this, although his letter combinations were not particularly weird. Notice that there was far more Elvish in the films than the books. Note also that the languages of Westeros were invented for the TV series -- Martin, one of the most successful fantasy writers since Tolkien -- has no desire to include made up languages in his book.

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A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

I have to say that I am in total agreement with NiallBeag here. A word or two scattered through the story is fine, but whole chunks of a language unknown to a reader will stop the rhythm in its tracks. Even using sentences in major European languages, French, German, Spanish, can, unless handled carefully, throw a reader off. If you have to use another language try to keep the sentences as short as possible and above all make them shallow along the lines of “Sit down”;"Open the door"; “Are you hurt?”; "Would you like a drink?; that sort of thing, simple questions and commands, and translate them straight away, unless the ‘not understanding” is part of the scene. Don’t use them for complicated concepts, unless it is an absolute piece of the plot, otherwise it just looks like showing off.

Well what I had originally planned to write was for the characters grandfather to be giving her some advice in his last few days alive
It would mean a lot more to the character to have her family speak in their native tongue, though she herself knows little, as to show
her heritage.
I do respect your opinions and will take them into consideration

I do have to say, though, that it would be highly unusual for her grandfather to be giving her advice by translating the words of a foreign writer into Irish. We may think of Shakespeare as iconic, but that's not necessarily true outside of the Anglo-centric world. Perhaps it would be better to think of some similar sentiment that is native to Irish and use that?

Redwolf

Trying to think of an Irish proverb to fit the concept, but all I can think of is this one about taking responsibility for one's actions:

An rud a scríobhann an púca léadh sé féin é.
Literal meaning: What the púca writes, he should read himself.
Figurative meaning: You should take responsibility for what you do.

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