There is a site online where one can view photocopies of old religious texts in Gàidhlig. It includes a New Testament which I've used before, located at http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book-collections/pageturner.cfm?id=97270347. I checked today, and there seems to be an entire Old Testament, too, located at http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book-collections/pageturner.cfm?id=97217335, but I don't seem to be able to make the key-word searching function work.

Part of the problem is probably the variations in spelling which exist(ed) in Gàidhlig, making it hard to predict how the words would have been spelled back then. Sometimes they would still be sticking pretty close to Irish spelling, and other times they would have started switching to a more Scottish spelling, and even in the latter case there was no real standard to follow.

You can also search by page number, so if you figure out roughly where in an average Old Testament Song of Songs is located (e.g. 30% of the way through), you could look at roughly the same point in the online page numbers and, once you find yourself within the Song of Songs, you should be able to get to your passage pretty quickly.

The main site for these religious texts is at http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book-collections.

I will actually be in Israel in less than a week, so if I spot a good Gàidhlig Bible on sale anywhere there for a reasonable price, I plan to buy it. The ones I've found for sale online were all pretty expensive the last time I looked, and the Bible Societies which produce cheaper versions seem to concentrate on New Testamanets (I have a hard copy of one of those already).

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

It's really puzzling me. Maybe I'm doing it wrongly, but the pages don't seems to be in the correct order (according to the index in the front of the book).

Anyhow I thought this was the correct page -
http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book ... d=97224011
But it sounds nothing like what you wanted Redwolf.

But it does correspond to verse 5:3 of Leabhar na Seanfhocal in The Biobla Naofa -
http://www.anbioblanaofa.org/pdf/221Seanf.pdf

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
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It's Song of Solomon 6:3

http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book ... d=97224347

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________

Interesting! I notice it uses "fear" in that translation...I wonder if I can drop "fear," so "love" could do for either? And if I do, would "mo ghràidh" become "mo ghràdh?" Not sure how the genitive works in Gaelic.

GRMA!

I'm guessing the difference in location of the verse is because that is the Protestant Bible.

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___________________________________________________________

It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________

Nah...it's because I misread the PDF. I looked at the top heading and didn't realize I'd crossed into another chapter.

Redwolf

Just looking for a verdict on this question, and then I think I'm good to go! I'd love to get the labels done this weekend, if possible, so if someone wouldn't mind checking on this for me, I'd really appreciate it.

Redwolf

Sorry, I saw that you and Bríd had located the verse, and I didn't notice your question until you repeated it. Taking it out of the "man of my love" structure, you could logically say:

Is lem ghràdh mise agus is leamsa mo ghràdh
[Gàidhlig has more contractions than Irish, and lem works for "le mo"]

However, from what I've seen the word gaol is more often used in Gàidhlig for one's "love/dear" [the person], so this might be more common:

Is lem ghaol mise agus is leamsa mo ghaol

The word gaol often sounds odd in this context to English speakers, since the Gàidhlig pronunciation is very different from the Irish pronunciation, and sounds close to the English word "ghoul". It does mean "love/dear", though.

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

GRMA! I'd like to stick as close to the actual verse as possible, so I think I'll go with "ghràdh" if it wouldn't be totally inappropriate.

Does anyone happen to know what the name of that book is in Gaelic? I didn't think about that before, but it would be nice to give the attribution.

And again, many thanks to all on this!

Redwolf

When you scroll up through the pages you get this -
http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book ... d=97217411
which I assume is the title page.

Leabhraichean an T-Seann Tiomnaidh Books of the Old Testament

air an tarruing - only guessing here, but I'd say taken from

o'n cheud Chanain - only guessing again but I'd say the first edition

Chum Gaelic Albannaich
1827

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___________________________________________________________

It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________