Irish Translation Forum

Hello everyone!
I'm looking to translate the following phrase into Gaelic. Any help is appreciated.

"Happiness is only real when shared."

a literal translation sounds a bit stilted in irish so i've tried to go for the auld proverb sounding thingy. dunno if i've been successful but...

ní fíor [an] sonas ach go bhfuil sé ag an mbeirt.
happiness is not real untill two people have it

wait on other opinions

All the words that I can think of for "share" can also mean "divide" or "split up", and unless you say something like "share with someone", I think that "divide" would be the first meaning that occurs to someone. So perhaps:

Ní fíor sonas ach go roinntear le duine.
Happiness isn't real unless/until it's shared with someone.

Caffler, I wouldn't use the article here... but I'm not sure. On the one hand, it is an abstract noun, but on the other, we're not talking about happiness in the abstract. We could be talking about any given instance of happiness, like the happiness associated with seeing a beautiful sunset. If we were saying something like "Happiness is sharing", then I would use the article.

I could well be wrong, but I would say "an sonas" here too, as I would understand it to mean "happiness itself" as opposed to just "happiness". Anyway, about Wombat's suggestion, I'm not familiar with that kind of construction, I would have said:

Ní fíor (an) sonas ach nuair a roinntear le duine é

Wait on more.

I appreciate all of your help! And yes, I will wait on confirmation/suggestions from others to ensure the best translation. Thanks again!

i see where mhwombat's driving with the omission of the article....
a happiness is not real until...
would also make sense

so if space is a premium the article could be dropped, i think, without banjaxing the whole thing.