My daughter and I want to get matching tattoos in Irish Gaelic with a saying we made up when she was very young. The saying is:
"I love you all the way to heaven and back infinity times"
Can someone please translate that for me? Thank you so much!

Perhaps:

Mo ghrá thú go neamh is ar ais go deo na ndeor
literally "I love you to heaven and back till the end of time."

It doesn't quite have the "cuteness" of the English but I think the sentiment is there.

Await further input ...

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[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).

Maybe I'm being pedantic, but what do you think of this re-ordering:

Mo ghrá go neamh is ar ais thú

'Tis a valid point, aye.

I guess I was thinking of Mo ghrá thú more as a set phrase, and expressions like mo ghrá thú agus airgead agat, etc.

Where would you put the rest of it, yourself, if you included it:

Mo ghrá go neamh is ar ais thú go deo na ndeor ?

or

Mo ghrá go neamh is ar ais go deo na ndeor thú ?

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[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).

I see your point regarding it being a set phrase. I would look at it as being very flexible, though, at least to the point of using it as you have above. I would consider all correct, with a preference to the two in your post there. Perhaps the two have slightly different emphases?

I'm open to other thoughts on this.

Yes, it is like feicfidh mé ar ball thú, etc. That is to say, feicfidh mé thú ar ball isn't strictly wrong but feicfidh mé ar ball thú is the normal word order, with the object pronoun at the end unless the predicate becomes complex or longish.

And moving the pronoun away from final position changes the emphasis.


Me, too. The more opinions the better.

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[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).

Mo ghrá go neamh thú is the first thing that jumped into my head when I seen the post on the foram index too.

In a dreacht nó leagan of Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire The first line is "Mo ghrádh go daingean tú" (pg. 200 in "Poems of the dispossessed " by Seán Ó Tuama and Thomas Kinsella).

If that word order and phrase was good enough in c. 1773 or good enough for Airt's wife Éibhlín Dhubh Ní Chonaill (aintín an fhuascailteora- Dónaill Ó Conaill) then its good enough to be used in a similar phrase here.

Mo ghrá thú go neamh...... sounds a bit strange to me, but I know its not wrong either.

So,

mo ghrá go neamh is ar ais go deo na ndeor thú

or maybe?

mo ghrá go neamh thú is ar ais go deo na ndeor leis.

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Thank you everyone for your comments. The on-line translator I used came up with this:

Is breá liom tú go léir ar an mbealach chun na bhflaitheas agus amanna Infinity ar ais

I really wanted to get the expertise of people that actually speak the language. Please tell me what you think of it and if it's even close.

Breandán gave the translation of the first one (Mo ghrá thú go neamh is ar ais go deo na ndeor) but I don't know what the difference is with the others.

Thank you again for helping me. It's very special to me and my daughter, Shannon.

On-line translators are still very much experimental and this is a good example of why they should be used with caution:

Is breá liom means "I love" as in "I love ice cream" not used for "loving" people close to you, though it could, I suppose, be used to express your admiration of a celebrity, etc.

go léir is "all" as in "you all"

ar an mbealach chun na bhflaitheas "on the way to heaven"

amanna "(at) times, sometimes"

Infinity (left untranslated).

All neatly aligned in the English word order which is different from the Irish word order.


Thanks, a Chiain. So Mo ghrá go neamh is ar ais go deo na ndeor thú is looking like the best candidate so far.

Anyone have any other ideas for the "infinity times" part. This is a common phenomenon amongst children when they discover a new word like "infinity" and know that it means "really big" or "a lot" and so want to use it where we might not normally expect it.

Can anyone think of an expression like that in Irish? (agus i bhfad bhfad bhfad níos faide, mar shampla?)

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[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).