Me and my best friend are getting matching tattoos and want to get something in Irish Gaelic. I have some phrases/words we’re thinking about, I’ve looked them up on Gaelic dictionaries but there’s so many different meanings I want to make sure I get the translation right so it means what we want it to. Here’s what we’re thinking about:
~ Triumph takes time
~Friendship, Love, and Loyalty (meaning of the Claddagh)
~Victorious
If anyone has any other suggestions for what to get that’s cool, we both recently went through some really bad stuff and are moving in together to kind of help each other through it, we’ve known each other since 4th grade so we want to get something special.
And yes, we know that tattoos are permanent, we both already have several, just so you know 
Thanks!
Thanks for the nice compliment Hoptoad! Alas however, I too am prone to make mistakes …
These are easy translations – they’re all common words – but if it’s for tattoos I assume you want them to be as concise as possible. Witch gave an excellent reference to an online Irish dictionary but you need to be aware of contexts for the meanings. I’ll give several translations for each with their literal meanings and you can choose.
Triumph takes time:
I assume you mean "victory" by "triumph", not the celebration afterwards.
"Glacann bua tamall" (victory takes time)
"Ni thagann bua roimh am" (victory doesn’t come before time)
"Le ham a bhaintear bua" (with time victory is won).
I would recommend the second one since it imitates a well-known proverb ("ní thagann ciall roimh aois" = commonsense doesn’t come before age)
Friendship, Love and Loyalty:
You could just translate the words as they are:
"Cairdeas, Grá agus Dílseacht"
but maybe since you’re referring to the symbolism of the Claddadh Ring, which is the statement: "Let love and friendship reign." This could translate as:
"An Cairdeas agus an Grá in uachtar" (Friendship and Love above all).
Victorious:
"Buach" for a person who has won a victory.
"Caithréimeach" for a person who is celebrating a victory
March 26th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Hi this is a good place for translating your english into irish, good luck both.w.w…..http://www.englishirishdictionary.com/
References :
March 26th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
Tats are permanent, so even though I speak some Irish, I’m not going to guess. Wait until you get an answer from a guy named "Donncha Rua"; he knows what he’s talking about.
Good luck to you and your friend as you help each other through this next bit!
References :
March 26th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Thanks for the nice compliment Hoptoad! Alas however, I too am prone to make mistakes …
These are easy translations – they’re all common words – but if it’s for tattoos I assume you want them to be as concise as possible. Witch gave an excellent reference to an online Irish dictionary but you need to be aware of contexts for the meanings. I’ll give several translations for each with their literal meanings and you can choose.
Triumph takes time:
I assume you mean "victory" by "triumph", not the celebration afterwards.
"Glacann bua tamall" (victory takes time)
"Ni thagann bua roimh am" (victory doesn’t come before time)
"Le ham a bhaintear bua" (with time victory is won).
I would recommend the second one since it imitates a well-known proverb ("ní thagann ciall roimh aois" = commonsense doesn’t come before age)
Friendship, Love and Loyalty:
You could just translate the words as they are:
"Cairdeas, Grá agus Dílseacht"
but maybe since you’re referring to the symbolism of the Claddadh Ring, which is the statement: "Let love and friendship reign." This could translate as:
"An Cairdeas agus an Grá in uachtar" (Friendship and Love above all).
Victorious:
"Buach" for a person who has won a victory.
"Caithréimeach" for a person who is celebrating a victory
References :
Native Irish speaker