Hi there everyone,
I found your Forum this morning and was hoping someone could help me a little. I want to get a tattoo, since someone very dear to me passed and I just want it for myself, without everybody being able to read it. I always have loved Irish since I lived in a flat share with my roommate Lorna, so I have already tried to put together a translation. Obviously that could go horribly wrong, having it tattooed without checking it first.

So here is what I want to translate..

Nemhain my heaven,
.. or ...
Heavenly Nemhain,
my true love, my share of life
My heart is in you

Here is what I have come up with:

A Nemhain ar Neamh (which I tought was going to be "Heavenly Nemhain") ...
or respective ..
A Nemhain a Neamh (I hope is "Nemhain my heaven")

1.
A fhíorghrá, a chuid den tsaol
Tá a chroí istigh ionat

2.
A fhíorghrá, a sciar de tsaol
Tá a chroí istigh ionat

As you can see I have come up with two versions, because I have absolutely confused myself with dictionaries and websites... but maybe it's a good start (I hope :P )

It would be awesome to have it in old Irish spelling, and I am of course not really sure if the wording I have used is modern Irish or old. Probably a bad mix of both

Your help is greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance!!

Looking forward to your comments!

Max

Hi, Max. Welcome to the forum.


That's "Nemhain in heaven" - which may be close to what you are after anyway?

"Heavenly Neamhain" would be A Neamhain neamhaí.


This version is closer, but I don't think you can use a chuid den tsaol in the vocative that way.

A cuid on it's own is a common term of endearment. So you could just have A fhíorghrá, a chuid.

Alternatively, you might keep the first part in the vocative and make a statement out of the rest:

A fhíorghrá, is tú mo chuid den tsaol "My truelove, you are my all."


You just need to change a to mo in this phrase.

Putting it together:

A Neamhain neamhaí
A fhíorghrá, is tú mo chuid den tsaol
Tá mo chroí istigh ionat

That's in modern spelling. In SL:

A Neaṁain neaṁaiġe
A ḟíorġráiḋ, is tú mo ċuid den tsaoġal
Tá mo ċroiḋe istiġ ionnat

Await further input ...

_________________
[hr]Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher[/hr]
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Hi there!
Thanks for the warm welcome and the reply

You've already helped a lot!

It definitely should be "Heavenly Nemhain" which I chose, because the person's name doesn't have an Irish form.
So I used the original Greek and Roman meanings to resemble it.

The only thing that I would like to have another look at is:

is tú mo chuid den tsaol "you are my all."

I would really like to say "My share of life" or "You are my share of life"

If you have any ideas that would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for your help and I hope to hear from you soon.


P.s: Thanks for the SL spelling! When we have got this together you'll have to show me were I can find the right font etc. because I've been searching a lot and there are so many different ones And I would of course love to know how to pronounce it

Cheers
Max

Actually, "Is tú mo chuid den tsaol" means "You are my part of the world", so it's already essentially what you wanted.
A common variation is:
Is tú mo chuid den tsaol mhór
"You are my part of the [great] big world"

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

Hey there,
thanks for the reply, and for the hint


I am an absolute novice and new to this... my Irish roomate only ever tought me how to swear and make a fool of myself, that's how far my knowledge goes!

So thanks again
Cheers

"Neamhaí" in SL is neaṁḋa.
I don't think the vocative of gráḋ is gráiḋ as it's a 3rd dec. noun.

Is tú mo ċuid den tsaoġal could also be phrased as Mo ċuid den tsaoġal is eaḋ ṫú if the OP preferred.

Hi there,
thanks for the input.
As I am completely lost here I'll just out of the discussion..


Cheers
Max

Oops, the a slipped in from habits of Irish spelling (leathan le leathan agus caol le caol).

@Murchadh - I was looking at neamhach instead of neamhaí - both mean heavenly.

Correcting:

A Neṁain neaṁḋa
A ḟíorġráḋ, is tú mo ċuid den tsaoġal
Tá mo ċroiḋe istiġ ionnat

Anois nach bhfuil sí ceart?

_________________
[hr]Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher[/hr]
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

BTW, "cuid den tsaol" is used in the vocative:

Dún do shuil' a rún mo chroí,
A chuid den tsaol 's a ghrá liom...

Redwolf

Ah, thanks, Redwolf. I'd not encountered it myself.

In that case there is no need for the is tú construction.

Correcting once again:

A Neṁain neaṁḋa
A ḟíorġráḋ, a ċuid den tsaoġal
Tá mo ċroiḋe istiġ ionnat

_________________
[hr]Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher[/hr]
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).