Irish Translation Forum

I need help with translation for a tattoo - "Die Hard!" - the imperative form of the verb. Is "Bas Crua" correct?

I need help with translation for a tattoo - "Die Hard!" - the imperative form of the verb. Is "Bas Crua" correct?

No, bás crua just means "hard death" -- just a noun and an adjective - no verb at all. So far as the verb is concerned, in Irish one "gets/finds death", so just the command "Die!" would be Faigh bás!. However, even with that as the verbal expression, the phrase "die hard" isn't going to make sense in Irish, as it's an English idiom. Idioms frequently do not translate well from one language into another, and anything close to being literal is going to come across as something like "die a hard [i.e. painful] death". The idiom "die hard" really means something like "go down fighting fiercely", and that could be translated intelligently into Irish, but it won't have the short pithiness of "die hard".

If you're open to something more traditional which is reasonably close, you could use this:
Bua nó bás!
Victory or death!