Irish Translation Forum

Alethealee838 wrote:I'm thinking it's going to be very difficult to find a translation for my poem any suggestion as to how I can accomplish finding a translation? Any advice is appreciated!

We're doing our best, but the bottom line is, poetry is among the hardest things to translate. The translator almost needs to be a poet himself, as well as fluent in both languages, to do it justice...otherwise, you pretty much have to expect a prose rendition of whatever the poem meant.

When a person writes a poem, he chooses words with great care, with thought to how they sound and to subtleties of meaning, as well as to rhyme, meter, and construction. It's very, very difficult to retain that sense in another language. As you saw (I hope!) from your experience with Google, it's not just a matter of plugging in words.

Redwolf

I can imagine it is very difficult! Thanks to all for advice! I will be patient and try researching further. My goal is to have it translated in such a way that if I had it engraved or as a tattoo and someone asked what it said I could recite my poem and not be lying!! I do understand though that that doesn't necessarily mean that someone who understood it in Gaelic would translate it into my exact words in English. Thanks again this just might be my excuse to plan a trip to Ireland

Alethealee838 wrote:Wow thank you! Yeah that's not at all what I meant it to say!! The poem goes:

Not in dreaming can I be
Not in seeming can I be
But in being I can be
And in doing I can say
I had my way
My way of saying

I'm hoping I might get some help translating thus poem into Irish garlic. Thanks do much for any help!

Here’s something else to throw into the mixer:

Ní i mbrionglóidí a thig liom
Ní i gcuma a thig liom
Ach ar bith a thig liom bheith
Agus deirim i mbun a dhéanta
Go raibh mo bhealachsa déanta
Agus sin ráite ar mo shlíse féin

and a SOUNDFILE for this:
http://www.box.net/shared/8qsghvhzmh

Thanks! There have been two possible translations? Anyone able to explain to me' the difference in the two? Or what either of them translate to in comparison to my poem? Very grateful for the help

Does anyone agree with any of the suggested translations?

Breandán wrote:No contest, really - braoin's translations come highly recommended for naturalness of expression; mine tend to be very literal. If in doubt, go with braoin's.

Thanks, Breandán for that nice compliment.... but to me everyone's translations are of equal value and I like the 'voting' system on this forum - it ensures a little bit of discussion and 'teasing out' and the poster ends up with a pretty good 'product' at the end of the day... and we all get to put our bit in....
....but I will say that it is nice to see people coming here first with what Google Translate gives them - instead of foolishly going and having ink jobs done 'prematurely' so to speak...lol.... Anyway, thank you again for your kind words of encouragement....
I have added a SOUNDFILE to the translation I gave, just for some kind of an idea of pronunciation....
http://www.box.net/shared/8qsghvhzmh

Wow thank you both so much! I am a very tentative gal so I am going to take lots of time before I make any 'permanent' decisions one request- if possible- I would like to know how someone seeing the poem in Gaelic might translate either of those suggested translations back into english. Hope I'm not too needy lol! Thanks again So so Much!!!

braoin wrote:

Alethealee838 wrote:Ní i mbrionglóidí a thig liom
Ní i gcuma a thig liom
Ach ar bith a thig liom bheith
Agus deirim i mbun a dhéanta
Go raibh mo bhealachsa déanta
Agus sin ráite ar mo shlíse féin

ONE CHANGE..... I should of course have changed the word 'féin' to 'bheith'.... sorry about that!!!

...putting it back 'line for line' into half reasonable English just for the sake of some sort of literal meaning of it:
I cannot in dreaming (be)
I cannot in appearances (be)
But I can in existence/in reality be
And while doing so I say
That my way was done
And in my own way it was said

The SOUNDFILE has been fixed accordingly...
http://www.box.net/shared/8qsghvhzmh