Hi all, I am a complete novice where Irish Gaelic is concerned, but I would like to learn, as my father did know quite a bit of gaelic (over the years he did get a bit rusty, but it usually came back to him). We sadly lost my dad a while back and we would like to put some words in gaelic on his headstone and I just wondered if anyone might be able to help at all. My dad did teach me how to bless myself (the sign of the cross) in gaelic as a child and a few other things, but I am struggling with this.

Firstly we want to say "At God's right hand, let him be." I know there is a masculine and feminine version of this, but am I correct in thinking that the correct version here would be "Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a hanam dílis."

We also want to quote a small extract from James Clarence Mangn's poem, Roisin Dubh. The line in question is "Thou lovest me, and I love thee." as the poem has signifcance in many ways.

I have tried to find out how to translate this, but don't want to end up putting the wrong translation on my dad's memorial. I did read a book of Old Irish, an extract, and it stated that nom-charai-siu is thou lovest me, and not charaimm-siu is I love thee., but there were other versions depending on the emphasis placed on words, so it was a bit confusing. I think 'and' is argus, though I am probably wrong on that. Is this somewhere along the right lines and could someone help with a correct translation.

Any help is very appreciated.

Thanks

Hi, MAGGYMAY. Welcome to ILF. Sorry for your loss.


deis on its own is "right hand" so lámh is redundant. a hanam is "her soul".

The usual way to express this is:

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. "May his faithful soul be at God's right hand."

Closer still to what you want would be:

Ar dheis Dé go raibh sé. "May he be at God's right hand." (literally "At God's right hand may he be.")


I can't seem to find the line in question in Róisín Dubh. Is this the version you mean?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B3is% ... %28song%29

_________________
Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
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).

Here's Caitlín Maude singing it - (with the words on the screen)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdskdLV4MWY

Hi Breandan and Franc, many thanks for your replies. That translation for "May he be at God's right hand" is great, thank you so much Breandan. The version of the poem that I have is in a book of Irish Writing, it is dated 1849 and begins with the lines "Since last night's star, afar afrar, Heaven saw my speed...." There are a lot of different versions, but this one contains the words in the fourth verse, "thou lovest me and I love thee, My Roisin Dubh." I'm not sure how you would translate those words though. James Mangan did translate from the Irish, but depending on the version, they are all different. Padraig Pearse did a version as well and others.

Thanks Franc as well for the link, but I think again, that might be a different version and I'm not sure when the gaelic comes up, which bits might relate to the words I am looking for "thou lovest me...." being completely clueless, as I am.

Any more nudges in the right direction will be very welcome, and many thanks to you both for you help so far, it's greatly appreciated, I am half way there now so that's great.

MAGGIEMAY, nowhere in the original Irish version does it say (the equivalent of) "thou lovest me and I love thee". The nearest it comes to that is in verse 4, line 3 of the link Breandán gave:

"...gheallais domhsa go raibh grá agat dom" , which, as you can see, in the English version is (in a literal translation) "thou didst promise me thou hadst love for me" (= "thou didst love me").

In verse 3, line 2: "is go bhfuil m'anam istigh i ngean ort", which is translated as "for the soul within me loveth thee".

Hi Errigal, there are lots of different translations of the original, depending on the poets own interpretation, by Mangan and Pearse and so on, the one I am referring to is the following, (Link from UCC, Ireland).

http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E84000 ... xt001.html

I guess the question is, would you be happy with just a direct translation of those words, or do you want the words that are actually used in the song? Because, as others have said, the line you want is a poetic interpretation (very common when translating poetry) that doesn't actually appear in the song in Irish.

If you'd be happy with a simple translation of "Thou lovest me, and I love thee," without worrying about the actual words as they appear in the song, we can certainly do that for you.

Redwolf

Hi Redwolf. Yes, that's right, as I said in my post, it does depend on the poet's own interpretation of the words. Mangan's (original translation from the Irish) version is my favourite and it is widely considered to be the most beautiful. I did post a link to the actual words, which you posted in your reply, so you could have a look at the poem if that makes the translation easier (I don't know gaelic very much at all, whereas you obviously do). Otherwise, I am quite happy to have a literal translation of the words.

http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E84000 ... xt001.html (this is the link to the translation of the poem I am referring to)

Many thanks!

That's not so much a translation of the original poem as a "new" poem with vague references to some of the phrases in the original.

But since the English poem by Mangan is the one that has meaning for you, we can translate that into Irish for you, as Redwolf said.

There are many ways to say "I love you" in Irish, but borrowing a phrase from the original Irish poem, perhaps:

Tá m'anam istigh i ngean ort, agus d'anamsa istigh i ngean ormsa.

Await confirmation or correction ...

_________________
Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
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 Breandan, yes, Mangan's interpretation is the one we are interested in. Really though, we are happy just to have the words translated, regardless of which version the words are actually taken from.

What does "Tá m'anam istigh i ngean ort, agus d'anamsa istigh i ngean ormsa." mean exactly in English?

Many thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.

Maggymay