This is an odd request, I know, but I need a painfully literal translation of "It's raining cats and dogs."

Yes, I know this isn't how heavy rain would be described in Irish, and that it actually sounds pretty ridiculous in Irish. That's why I need it. I'm using it as an example of how a literal translation can be grammatically correct and still not work idiomatically or culturally.

Do you think I can get by with something like "Tá sé ag cur cat is madraí"?

Or if you can think of a different English expression that just doesn't translate well directly, I'm open to suggestions.

GRMA,

Redwolf

That works syntactically but not semantically (like you were saying); the use of ag cur is even ambiguous here. If I were to read the line, without knowing the context, I would think that the sentence is incomplete and I would be asking myself: where is 'he suppose to be putting the cats and dogs'?.

Reversing the situation to illustrate the difficulty with using direct translations (Calques) may be a good idea: i.e. translating directly from Irish to English. Some good examples that I can think of that make sense in Irish, but not when translated are:

Giorraíonn beirt bóthar.

Is ait an mac an saol.

Is binn béal ina thost.
Literally: Melodious is a mouth in its silence

Ar scáth a chéile a mhairid/ eann na daoine.

Cian

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

I don't even know if you can... which proves the point doubly! Thinking logically... "cur" is placing the action on the verb ie ag cur báistí/ag cur fearthainne

So "ag cur cat is madraí" is kind of meaningless because the implication of rain simply isn't there. ie The way Irish usually constructs such a phrase as "it's raining" is not conducive to literally translating such an English saying. That would be my thinking anyway.

Maybe you could shoehorn it in by phrasing it unnaturally. Something like "bhí báisteach mhadraí is cait ann" [question: I lenited madraí because báisteach is feminine; am I correct in NOT leniting cait because it's separated by "is"? I think I am, but I'd like to be sure]. But now we're in the realm of shoehorning the phrase so that it can be literally translated, removing even more meaning for it

Edit: Cross with An Cionnfhaolach

here are my crazy attempts

ag cur bháisteach na gcat is na madraí atá sé
tá sé ina bháisteach cat is madraí

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ЯГОН ТОҶИК НЕСТ ИНҶО???

The first should be "ag cur báistí"

I thought that because it was a double genitive the first one reverted to séimhiú

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ЯГОН ТОҶИК НЕСТ ИНҶО???

Here's my attempt at it -

Stealltar fearthainn chomh le titear madraí is cait go talamh.

(I'm well aware the problems of trying to make a translation as close to the original as possible while at the same time trying not to be so literal that it becomes incomprehensible. This is what I always used to say to my students - not only do we speak a different language, but we say things differently in that language - and how would you put that into Irish, I wonder?)

You could be right about that. It's such a silly translation is all :P

Tá an fhearthainn/bháisteach (á cur/ag titim) ina cait agus (ina) madraí.
?

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(SL)(GM)

Raining in English can be transitive, in Irish it can't. It is impossible to translate "raining cats and dogs".
"Ag báisteach" and even more obvious "ag cur básistigh" can't have an object.
"Ag cur" can have an object (other than báisteach or fearthainn or similar) but then it drops the meaning "raining".

So, you have to evade "raining" and you probably must use something more figurative (like: falling):
Tá sé ag cur báistigh ar nós mar a bheadh na cait agus na madraí uile ag titim anuas ón spéir.