Hi all,

I'm new to the site and forum and was hoping for some help. I acknowledge I am quite ignorant to the details of what I'm asking, so any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Not only in the translation, but in any nuansced of the translation. This is going to be for a tattoo.

I am interested in having the term "I alone" translated to irish gaelic and then I'm hoping to inevitably translate it to Ogham. I mean this as "I alone am responsible" or "I alone must take action" as in if I want something to happen, if I want my life to change, then I am going to need to take action. No one will do it for me. Right now my focus is on the translation to irish gaelic.

I've seen a thread on this board to this effect and I already reviewed it, but the OP of that thread was going for something a little different which is why I'm starting this thread.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks!

I would translate this as 'Mise Amháin', (lit. Mise = me (with emphasis) and Amháin = one). This is a relatively common phrase with the meaning that you suggested.

PLEASE WAIT FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO POST BEFORE TAKING FURTHER ACTION!!! I am not a fluent speaker, I have a relatively good understanding of vocabulary and grammar, but the last thing that I would want is for you to have a mistake permanently glued to your body because of me.

The golden rule on this forum is to always wait for three people to agree on a translation before doing anything, especially with tattoos.

Lé Meas,
Séamus

Do you think that you could provide a link to this thread?

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=5504

Actually it looks like Breandan proposed Mise amháin but I would still be looking for a confirmation if that's accurate.

I would personally go with 'Mise Amháin'. I feel like the overall mysteriousness and ambiguousness of this phrase nicely overlaps with your original English phrase (i.e. 'I Alone' could mean many different things, but when explained has a more specific meaning, this is the same as with 'Mise Amháin') If you are wanting a single phrase that specifically encompasses the uses that you suggested, I unfortunately will not be able to be of much assistance.

As for the other suggestions posted on the thread you have:

'Mé Féin' literally means 'Myself', so I probably wouldn't choose this. I would say that the meaning of 'I alone' could only be made with an extended phrase with this one (i.e. Níl in ann é sin a dhéanamh ach mé féin = Nobody can do that but me)

'Liom Féin' - this suggestion was made by Bríd, who is a native speaker, so her input is of high value. This literally means 'With Myself'.

'Mé I M'Aonar' - this was suggested by Labhrás. Labhrás is well known on the forum for being highly knowledgeable on grammar, but I myself don't know how accurate this phrase would be. According to Teanglann, under aonar in Ó Dónall's dictionary, Tá mé i m'aonar means 'I am by myself', 'I am alone', which I don't think carries the meaning you're looking for.

I really hope this helps,
Séamus

Thanks so much for the help and analysis Séamus. I think the ambiguity of the first thread left me a bit concerned with going with any recommendations there without providing additional context for my own situation.

However, you and Breandán from that thread both seem to agree that for my use/context the best route is "Mise amháin". Can anyone offer a third confirmation? Thanks so much!

I am a few days late, but sure better late than never...

I think Mise Amháin sounds good. Bríd's translation too, especially as a native speaker.

To go on a tangent, I could see Mise Amháin extended to something like "[Is] mise amháin an té" + relative clause, to cover the sort of stuff you want in your OP.

Thanks so much for the help and analysis Séamus. I think the ambiguity of the first thread left me a bit concerned with going with any recommendations there without providing additional context for my own situation.

However, you and Breandán from that thread both seem to agree that for my use/context the best route is "Mise amháin". Can anyone offer a third confirmation? Thanks so much![/quote]

I am a few days late, but sure better late than never...

I think Mise Amháin sounds good. Bríd's translation too, especially as a native speaker.

To go on a tangent, I could see Mise Amháin extended to something like "[Is] mise amháin an té" + relative clause, to cover the sort of stuff you want in your OP.[/quote]

Sorry for my delayed response -- work got quite busy. Thank you both so much for your help on this. This dialog has been really helpful and informative. Thanks for the additional tangent at the end. I think for my purpose I'm going to go with "Mise Amháin" alone as I am going for a bit of the openness of the statement. For example if this was in English, I would keep it as "I alone" and not expand it to "I alone must do it". I like a bit of vagueness. Thanks again!