Irish Translation Forum

Can someone please translate this for me "Boys sacrifice some, Men sacrifice all" Its for my father and grandfather that just passed away both knowing Gaelic.

hate to be annoying but i need this asap please.

is this right "Buachaillí íobairt roinnt. Fir íobairt ar fad."

jonreilly21 wrote:is this right "Buachaillí íobairt roinnt. Fir íobairt ar fad."

No, that is absolutely not right. It’s grammatically incorrect and makes no sense (it means something like “Boys to sacrifice division. Men to sacrifice total”).

I don’t think a literal translation of this would work at all in Irish—or at least, I can’t make it sound natural at all by translating it directly. Some poetic licence is needed.

A suggestion:
Íobraíonn (an) buachaill a chuid féin, ach íobraíonn (an) fear a iomlán
‘A boy sacrifices his own share, but a man sacrifices his everything’

(I can’t decide whether I want the definite article to be in there or not …)


Wait for others to chime in, though. Perhaps someone else can make a neater translation that works in Irish, too.

I prefer it without the article.

The original version did not necessarily mean that a boy sacrifices all of his part, so perhaps instead something like this:

Íobraíonn an buachaill i bpáirt, ach íobraíonn an fear an t-iomlán
A boy sacrifices partially, but a man sacrifices all (the whole).

Revised.

I've moved to: i r i s h l e a r n e r . a w y r . c o m

CaoimhínSF wrote:The original version did not necessarily mean that a boy sacrifices all of his part, so perhaps instead something like this:

Íobraíonn an buachaill go claonta, ach íobraíonn an fear an t-iomlán
A boy sacrifices partially, but a man sacrifices all (the whole).

That won’t work—claonta means ‘partial’ in the sense of ‘inclined, prejudiced’. Íobraíonn buachaill go claonta would mean that a boy sacrifices in a prejudiced manner, rather than sacrificing only in part.

Maybe Mioníobairt na mbuachaillí, íobairt iomlán na bhfear.

fiairefeadha wrote:Maybe Mioníobairt na mbuachaillí, íobairt iomlán na bhfear.

Much nicer than mine!

How about even Mioníobairt na mbuachaillí, láníobairt na bhfear?