I spent a few hours with an online translator trying to generate lines that didn't seem too awful, to replace the Spanish with Irish. They are below. At the bottom are the song's original lyrics. Some of the Spanish is clearly not "correct" but part of the humor in the song (i.e., "Should I stay or should I go now?" translated as "tengo frío por los ojos" which means "I'm cold by the eyes"). I would deeply appreciate any feedback on whether the Irish lines I generated make any sense at all and/or even remotely work to replace the Spanish. If I sing this outlaid, will I offend or amuse...., or both or neither?

LINES THAT HOURS OF ONLINE TRANSLATION PRODUCED:

This indecision's bugging me, or This is disturbing me
Tá sé seo ag cur isteach orm

If you don’t want me let me go
mura mian leat mé, lig dom dul

Who am I supposed to be?
cé atá ceaptha dom a bheith

Don’t you know what fits?
bhfuil a fhios agat cad a oireann?

Come on and let me know
Tar ar aghaidh agus inis dom

Should I chill or blow?
ar chóir dom fuarú nó buille

Double
Dúbailte

Wait
Fan

Should I stay or go now?
ar cheart dom fanacht nó dul anois

If I go there will be trouble
Má théann mé ann beidh trioblóid ann

if I stay it will be double
má fhanann mé beidh sé dúbailte

You must let me know
caithfidh tú a chur in iúl dom

Should I chill or blow?
ar chóir dom fuarú nó buille


ORIGINAL LYRICS
This indecision's bugging me (esta indecisión me molesta)
If you don't want me, set me free (si no me quieres, librarme)
Exactly whom I'm supposed to be (dígame que tengo ser)
Don't you know which clothes even fit me? (sabes que ropa me quedra)
Come on and let me know (me tienes que decir)
Should I cool it or should I blow? (me debo ir o quedarme)

Double
Wait

Should I stay or should I go now? (yo me enfrió o lo soplo)
Should I stay or should I go now? (yo me enfrió o lo soplo)
If I go there will be trouble (si me voy va a haber peligro)
And if I stay it will be double (si me quedo sera el doble)
So ya gotta let me know (me tienes que decir)
Should I cool it or should I blow? (me debo ir o quedarme)

Should I stay or should I go now? (tengo frío por los ojos)
If I go there will be trouble (si me voy va haber peligro)
And if I stay it wil be double (si me quedo sera el doble)
So ya gotta let me know me tienes que decir
Should I stay or should I go?

This is going to be a challenge, especially if you hope to sing it. The two languages are constructed very, very differently (Irish is much, much "wordier" than English, and tends to favor conjugated prepositions over dedicated verbs) and have completely different idioms (for example, the word "fuarú" simply means "chilling" as in making something cold. It doesn't mean "cool" or "chill" in the English slang sense. And "buille" is a noun meaning a "blow" as in "to strike a blow.").

Someone may take a stab at it, though.

Redwolf

Some of your translation's ok, some isn't. I'm giving you a literal translation of the English part only. As Redwolf hinted, some reworking would be needed to make it fit into a sung version well.


'Blow', of course, is ambiguous here. To me it means 'burst', 'explode' in contrast to 'cool it' ('stay calm') and that's how I've translated it. It could also mean 'hit the road', 'leave' but I don't think it means 'blow' ('soplo' in the Spanish bit) with the lips or like the wind. What do you think yourself?
I haven't translated any of the Spanish. Do you want it translated?

The first thing you should know is...not all of those Spanish lyrics are right (as in transcribed correctly). I don’t think he ever actually says Tengo frío por los ojos; it always just Yo me enfrío o lo spolo, which is a quite literal translation of “I cool it or I blow” (how accurate it is I don’t know, you’d probably have to ask a native speaker), as far as I can tell. Do not start translating it into Irish before you know what it means in English, obviously, I’ll try to give you my translation tomorrow.

"Chill and blow" seems to be directly referring to "stay and go": chill out here, or hit the road.

I've heard "soplar de (alguien)" = to split on (somebody) but not "soplarse" with the same nuance.

Anyway, Señor Errigal, the Irish is up to you.

Thank you for all this help! I really want to do my best to honor all the languages... but wow it is complicated. I appreciate the time and thought and knowledge you are taking with this. I'll keep working... because, natch, if you all manage to help me create a respectable translation in Irish, then I have to learn to a) pronounce it correctly... and then b) fit it into the song phrasing and c) memorize it. Fortunately, it's punk, so I can probably get away with some less-than-graceful phrasing. But I have serious work ahead, I can see.

Karen (taikogrrl)

from taikogrrl:
I'm not sure I'm replying correctly -- I'm not sure how the reply embeds -- but I wanted to agree: I think "chill" and "blow" are slang for "stay" and "go," which makes the Spanish "translation" a bit humorously literal. Since I live in Tucson, I'll talk to a couple people I know who are native speakers of Spanish... but, of course, we speak Mexican Spanish here, which has it's own idioms and nuances.

Alright, as best I can make out, the Spanish lyrics are:

Indecisión me molesta
Si no me quieres líbrame
¡Dígame! ¿Qué tengo ser?
¿Sabes qué ropa me queda?
Pero que tienes que decir
¿Me tengo ir o quedarme?

Doblo me enfrío o lo soplo (not completely sure about this one)

Es verdad

Yo me enfrío o lo soplo
Yo me enfrío o lo soplo
Si me voy, va a haber peligro
Si me quedo, ¡es doble!
Pero me tienes que decir

(repeat chorus)

Which translates to:

Indecision is annoying me
If you don't want me set me free
Tell me! What do I have be? (bad grammar)
Do you know which clothes fit me?
But you have to tell me*
Do I have stay or go? (same thing)

I double I cool it or I blow (doesn't make a lot of sense)

It's true

I cool it or I blow (literally)
I cool it or I blow
If I go there will be trouble
If I stay, it's double!
But you gotta tell me

*I think he just said the wrong word here, as it is, it means, But that you have to tell, he says it right in the chorus.

As for Irish, I'll give you what I can...

Tell me! What do I have to be?
Abair dom! Cad ann is orm a bheith?

But you have to tell me
Ach caithfidh tú dom a rá

Shoud I stay or should I go?
Ar cheart dom fanacht nó ach dul?

I added an ach in the last line to make it fit better, wait for other people to confirm what I gave you, however, I'm not good at all.

A couple of things, Esszet:

1 You can have either 'abair liom' or 'inis dom' but not 'abair dom'.
2 'Cad ann is orm a bheith?' - 'ann is' makes no sense here. The structure would be (in theory) 'Cad atá orm a bheith?' except you can't use 'bheith' with 'cad' here. That would be like 'tá mé fear'.
3 'Ach caithfidh tú dom a rá' - Same as in 1 > 'a rá liom'/'insint dom'.
4 'Ar cheart dom fanacht nó ach dul?' - 'dul' means 'go' in a general sense. The meaning here is 'go away', leave' = 'imeacht'.

Alright, so:

But you have to tell me
Ach caithfidh tú liom a rá

Shoud I stay or should I go?
Ar cheart dom fanacht nó imeacht?

As for #2, yeah, I realized it needs the possessive pronoun, and it was when you said that...I’m not sure if this is going to work, but:

Tell me! What do I have to be?
Abair liom! Cad é mo dhuine inar orm bheith?

EDIT: But I just realized it’s the same construction as the one in the other thread (Mo dhuine inar bheith mise), so I don’t know, and that’s all I got.