Hello everyone!

I will be taking my first trip to Ireland in a little more than a month and I have decided I want to get a tattoo while I am there. I figured I could probably get a translation done in Ireland (there's probably not a much better place in the world for an Irish translation) but I wanted to go into it as prepared as possible since bad tattoos last just as long as good ones.

The quote I would like for my tattoo is "Life is to be lived". It is a Ralph Ellison quote from Invisible Man. The full quote is, "Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.” I really only want the first 5 words for my tattoo. Short and sweet (and hopefully an easy translation).

Thank you so much in advance for all of your help. Anything you can give me is much appreciated. I will check in as often as possible to answer any questions but I am currently living in South Korea so the time difference may create some difficulty.

Thanks again!

My best bet would be, after finding a word mair which means ‘to live [a good/bad life]’, ‘to spend your life [in a good/bad way]’, ‘to last’ (but not ‘to live’ as in ‘to be alive’ because that is expressed in Irish as a bheith beo, a bheith ina bheatha – so literally ‘to be alive’, ‘to be in one’s living’):

Tá saol le maireachtáil

And I’ve found a very similar sentence using Google – Tá an saol le maireachtáil. The only differenting word, an, is the definite article (the in English), to that the sentence translates literally to ‘the life is to be lived’, ‘the life is for living it’, and perhaps would be more idiomatic in Irish than my version.

[quote="silmeth"]


Thank you! This sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. And also thank you for your great explanation! Can anyone confirm this translation or have any changes?

In this case, the definite article would make it sound better in Irish (even though not in English):

Tá an saol le maireachtáil

Also, I'd wait for further comment. The verb mair can also mean "endure", thus you might end up conveying an unintended, not so positive meaning. Someone may be able to come up with a better way to say what you want (I can't think of anything else right now).

Editing to add a traditional expression which might convey your idea:

Bain ceol as an saol.

The literal meaning is "Draw music from life", but the figurative meaning is that life is to be enjoyed.

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

This is what I was going to recommend.

Redwolf

Thank you Redwolf and CaoimhínSF!

I was hoping to get more of a literal translation but I definitely don't want to say "life is meant to be endured" haha that's kind of the opposite of what I want to convey.

I do like the "draw music from life" quote because it has the same message but says it in a more figurative way. Thanks again to everyone taking the time to help me! It's greatly appreciated