I am going to be getting a new tattoo soon...and my mother is Irish & my father Hungarian...I will eventually get something done from each of my parents but this time I am going with Irish. I know it may need altered a little bit for proper grammatical translation but I am looking to get something similiar to this phrase...or at least its basic concepts:

Reflect on the past, prepare for the future, but never forget to live in the present.

Or something of the same....

please help =)
thank u

The ‘past/present/future’ dichotomy is a bit problematic in Irish, since there’s only really a word for ‘future’: the other two are normally expressed periphrastically. So for this kind of request, we’d normally suggest instead using ‘yesterday/today/tomorrow’:

Bí ag machnamh ar an lá inné; bí ag ullmhú don lá amárach; ach ná déan dearmad bheith beo sa lá inniu
(very literal translation: ‘be reflecting on the day of yesterday; be preparing for the day of tomorrow; but don’t forget to be alive in the day of today’)

It’s longer in Irish than in English, but it works like this.

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Not a native speaker.

Always wait for at least three people to agree on a translation, especially if it’s for something permanent.

My translations are usually GU (Ulster Irish), unless CO (Standard Orthography) is requested.

I know this is probably all over the shop but.......

Is there a way of shortening it to say something like,

'Smaonaigh ar inné, ullmhaigh don amárach, ach i gcónaí mair inniu.'

What I am trying to say is:

Think of yesterday, prepare for tomorrow but always live today.

Wait for the grammar vultures to tear it apart! I'm almost afraid to look; I can feel them swooping already!

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Like both above, what about

Macnaigh ar atá tharat, ulmhaigh do atá romhat, ach caithfear bheith beo sa lá atá inniu ann.

Not too sure on the do atá romhat, doesn't scan. Perhaps do rudaí atá romhat, in which case macnaigh ar rudaí as well.

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Ó dá ligfeadh sí liú amháin gaile, liú catha...

Ceartaigí libh

Ar atá tharat and do atá romhat don’t work, you’re right. You could say ar a bhfuil tharat and dá bhfuil romhat, though. But the nice parallelism of the first two is completely broken by the last part that uses different words altogether.

(Also, machnaigh and ullmhaigh)

The reason I initially chose the variants I did is exactly that they are very parallel: all three constituent phrases use bí, and they all have [preposition] + an lá + [day]. Actually, to increase the parallelism:

Bí ag machnamh ar an lá inné
bí ag ullmhú don lá amárach
— ach ná déan dearmad:
bí ag maireachtáil sa lá inniu

_________________
Not a native speaker.

Always wait for at least three people to agree on a translation, especially if it’s for something permanent.

My translations are usually GU (Ulster Irish), unless CO (Standard Orthography) is requested.