Greetings! I am new to the forum and have never studied Irish before, though I am trained in linguistics. My interest mainly stems from a beautiful song in Irish I would like to understand in the original language. Here are the lyrics:

An cuimhin leat an grá / Crá croí an ghrá / Níl anois ach ceol na h-oíche / Táim sioraí i ngrá / Leannáin le smál / Leannáin le smál
/ Lig leis agus beidh leat / Lig leis agus beidh grá

Cuimhne leat an t-am / Nuair a bhí tú sásta / An cuimhne leat an t-am / Nuair a bhí tú ag gáire

Tá an saol iontach / Má chreideann tú ann / Tug aghaidi ar an saol is / sonas sioraí inár measc

Céard a tharla do na laethanta sin / Céard a tharla do na h-oícheanta sin / An cuimhin leat an t-am / Nuair a bhí tú faoi bhrón

An cuimhin leat an t-am / Go sioraí sileadh na ndeor / an ormsa nó orainne a bhí an locht

Ag mothú cailte s'ar fán / Cén fáth an t-achrann is sileadh na ndeor / Tá áilleacht sa saol Má chuardaíonn tú e / Tá gliondar sa saol / Creideann sé

(lyrics are from https://metalgear.fandom.com/wiki/The_B ... et_to_Come). I don't know who wrote the lyrics, but Aoife Ní Fhearraigh is the one singing.

From what I understand, Irish has three main varieties: Ulster, Connacht and Munster. Are these lyrics close to any one of these varieties, or to any other standard form? I would really appreciate if you could point me to grammar and vocabulary resorces that are appropriate for understanding this song in this variety of Irish

There are some grammatical/spelling/syntax errors in the Irish, but if Aoife Ní Fhearraigh is the one singing, she would know better, so maybe it's all poetic license. She's a native speaker from northern Donegal, so there might be some Ulster dialectical influence, too. A further consideration is that liner notes for Irish-language CD's, or lyrics posted online, sometimes have errors, because they were produced/edited by non-Irish speakers.

I haven't indicated any suggested corrections below, except in one place which I think is an obvious typo, but I've indicated some places where I'm not entirely sure what the writer was trying to say (in some other places, things were a bit confusing, but I was fairly certain what was meant).

Do wait for others to check my work and make their suggestions.

An cuimhin leat an grá
Do you remember love

Crá croí an ghrá
The heartbreak of love

Níl anois ach ceol na h-oíche
There's nothing now but the music of the night

Táim sioraí i ngrá
I'm eternally in love

Leannáin le smál / Leannáin le smál
I used to continue blemished [??] [ditto]

Lig leis agus beidh leat
Let it go and [it] will be be yours

Lig leis agus beidh grá
Let it go and love will be

Cuimhne leat an t-am
Do you remember the time

Nuair a bhí tú sásta
When you were glad

An cuimhne leat an t-am
Do you remember the time

Nuair a bhí tú ag gáire
When you were smiling/laughing

Tá an saol iontach
Life is wonderful

Má chreideann tú ann
But if you believe in it

Tug aghaidi [aghaidh] ar an saol is
Go out into the world [??] and

sonas sioraí inár measc
eternal happiness [will be] in our midst

Céard a tharla do na laethanta sin
What happened on those days

Céard a tharla do na h-oícheanta sin
What happened on those nights

An cuimhin leat an t-am
Do you remember the time

Nuair a bhí tú faoi bhrón
When you were sorrowful

An cuimhin leat an t-am
Do you remember the time

Go sioraí sileadh na ndeor
Tears would trickle eternally

an ormsa nó orainne a bhí an locht
Was the blame mine or ours

Ag mothú cailte s'ar fán
Feeling lost and waiting

Cén fáth an t-achrann is sileadh na ndeor
Why the strife and trickling of tears

Tá áilleacht sa saol
There's beauty in the world [or: in life]

Má chuardaíonn tú e
If you search for it

Tá gliondar sa saol
There's joy in the world [or: in life]

Creideann sé
Believe it

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

Leannáin isn't a verb (that's leannainn = "I used to continue")
It is a noun: = lovers

leannáin le smál = lovers with a stain



Because of "céard" (= "what") I'd think the dialect of the text is Connacht Irish.

CaoimhínSF, Labhrás, thank you SO much!

I looked up every word on wiktionary and compared what I found with CaoimhínSF's translation. I now have a rough understanding of the text, but I would like to ask some follow-up questions:

-Why is “leat” used in verse 1, "An cuimhin leat an grá" ? From my understanding, it literally translates to “Do you remember love with you?” Is it just the way the verb 'remember' works in Irish?

-What is the meaning of “tug” in “Tug aghaidh ar an saol”? Is it an inflected form? I wasn't able to find this word.

-What's “s'ar” in “Ag mothú caillte s'ar fán”? Is it a combination of the preposition ar (“on”) with something else in front?

Also, I'm not quite sure that the lyrics match the actual song, in two passages. The first is at 0.32 (Leannáin le smál), the second at 4.11 (Ag mothú caillte s'ar fán). Could you please check? Here's the link to the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6miaTf1gF4g&t=267s

Great job Caoimhín.

An cuimhin leat an grá
Do you remember the love

Lig leis agus beidh leat
Let it go and [it] will be be yours / "beidh leat" means " you will succeed". It might be just a Conamara idiom.

Tug aghaidi [aghaidh] ar an saol is
Go out into the world [??] and / Yes, go out into the world, or face the world.

Céard a tharla do na laethanta sin
What happened on those days / "do" means "to" -What happened to those days.

Céard a tharla do na h-oícheanta sin
What happened to those nights

Creideann sé
Believe it - It / He believes. "Believe it" would be "Creid ann".

I'd recommend https://www.teanglann.ie/
It's an online version of Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (FGB) and English-Irish Dictionary (EID).



There's no verb "remember" here, just a noun, cuimhin = rememberance, memory - which is "with you"
It's an idiom, the normal way to say that you remember: Is cuimhin liom = I remember
An cuimhin leat?
interrogative particle[+copula]* memory with-you
"Is memory with you?" -> Do you remember?

*"An" is said to be the "interrogative form of copula" - but in fact it is the interrogative particle, the copula ("is") is understood.



It's a form of tabhair = give;
Though "tabhair" is the Standard imperative form, here it is "tug"
"Give face on the world" or simple: Face the world!



Wrong spelling here. It should be 's ar
's is a short form of agus(= "and")
ag mothú = "at feeling"
ar fán = "on wandering"
"feeling lost and wandering"

Bríd Mhór, Labhrás, thank you!

So "an grá" is in the genitive, right? "Is memory of love with you?"?

No, it's nominative. An grá is the subject of the sentence.
(gentive would be lenited: an ghrá and it would be next to its governing noun, nothing inbetween)

An cuimhin leat an grá?
predicate: cuimhin leat
subject: an grá

So, a literal translation (in English word order) is: "Is the love memory with you?"

Not sure if it’s the best way to think about this particular idiom, but you also can use noun1 le noun2 to mean a noun1 of noun2’s, expressing possession, like eg. in tá cara liom(sa) ann ‘there is a friend of mine; one of my friends’ so I think about is cuimhin liom an grá in terms of something like the love is a memory of mine; one of my memories.

But I have no idea whether that’s the original meaning of the idiom or not (there generally are a few more idiomatic structures involving le than just this one) – so it’s just my own way to help myself rationalize the literal meaning.

Labhrás: got it, thanks!