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Hello,
I’m trying to translate the sentence “Living the present. Creating the future. Together.” into Irish Gaelic. The sentence is meant to be standing alone (like a slogan) for a little artistic project on peace.
The original Italian version, if it helps, is “Vivere il presente. Creare il futuro. Insieme.” (with the infinitive and not with the gerund).
Is there anyone who could help me with Irish?
Thanks,
FedeThat’s a tough one! In Irish, there is no infinitive, but a “verbal noun” which fulfills some of its functions. Keeping that in mind, I would offer something like “Mairimis sa lá atá inniu ann. Cruthaímis an lá atá le teacht. In éindi” (literally “Let us live in the present day. Let us shape the one that is to come. Together”). But there could be better ways to render this, so wait for more comments!
Thank you for the help!
Actually, if it were allowed in Irish, I would prefer to translate “living the present” instead of “living in the present”. Besides that, based on the literal translation in the brackets, it sounds already very good!
I have one question: I see that you translated “the present” and “the future” with a longer expression. Is this beacause there are no specific words in Irish for “the present” and “the future”?
Regarding verbal nouns, I think they could work too, as long as it sounds good in Irish. How would it be?
Thank you very much!
Why not? Depends on the meaning. If you use the imperative, you are expressing a wish for how people should behave. In contrast, if you use the verbal noun, you’re describing something that’s already happening. In that case, you’d also have to add the preposition ‘ag’ in front of the verbal noun, I think.
What do you mean by ‘living the present’? 🙂 Could you give some concrete examples? That would make it easier to choose an appropriate translation. As regards ‘present’ and ‘future’, both words exist, but their use is more limited and varies depending on the context.
To me “Living the present” suggests an active role of those who are living. On the other hand, “Living in the present” gives me the idea of a present that is given and to which we have to adapt.
The original sentence was actually in Italian (my mother tongue), and I wrote it using the infinitive, since in Italian the infinitive gives both the idea of a description of what is happening and an invitation to act.
Regarding “the present”, that should mean “the present time”, implicitly referred to the european/global situation we are experiencing today. In the same way, “the future” is referred to the global future of our society.
I hope that helps.
To me “Living the present” suggests an active role of those who are living. On the other hand, “Living in the present” gives me the idea of a present that is given and to which we have to adapt.
If you want to emphasize the former connotation in Irish, you could say something like “páirt a ghlacadh sa lá atá inniu ann” (literally “taking part in the present”) but that loses a bit of the shades of meaning contained in the word “living”.
To answer an earlier question, there are words for “present” and “future” that are more concise but they aren’t exactly used the same way. For example “láithreach” means “present” spacially and/or temporally (an aimsir láithreach = the present time/tense). You could use this “ag maireachtáil san aimsir láithreach” but I feel like that has a weird stuffiness to it. There is also the word “freacnairceach” which is a very seldom used word which means “present, current, etc”. Lots of words in Irish don’t exactly have the same connotations that they do in other languages, for example “an domhan” means “the world” but it doesn’t really so much refer to the people in the world as it does in English, for example. Like if you said “end of the world”, you are often talking about the end of human life, whereas if you said “deireadh an domhain” in Irish, the likely connotation is that you’re talking about the end of the physical planet. So what Ovunanja says (which I agree with) “sa lá atá inniu ann” literally means “in the day that is today” and is a phrase which carries more the meaning of “present time, i.e. the time that’s here right now”.
Likewise, there are a couple of words for “future”, the most appropriate candidate being “todhchaí”. What Ovunanja suggests (“an lá atá le teacht”) means “the day that is to come”, and is a good counterpoint to “sa lá atá inniu ann”. Again, this phrase is a more colloquial or natural way of talking about the future.
Regarding “the present”, that should mean “the present time”, implicitly referred to the european/global situation we are experiencing today. In the same way, “the future” is referred to the global future of our society.
Thanks a lot for clarifying that! In that case, what about the following alternatives:
Ag tarraingt chugainn an lá atá inniu ann. Ag cruthú an lá atá le teacht. In éindí. (literally “Embracing the present day. Creating the one to come. Together”)
Ag tabhairt aghaidh ar an lá atá inniu ann. … (literally “Facing up to the present day …”)
Perhaps other forum members can add something even more suitable?
Thank you very much! I see indeed that there are differences between languages that do not allow to translate always exactly what one has in mind (in Italian too the sentence sounds slightly different from the English one).
Between “Ag tarraingt chugainn…” and “Ag tabhairt aghaidh ar…” the former looks to me more positive (right?) thus faithful to the message I would like to convey. You first suggested “Mairimis sa…”, is that still a valid option?
Just make sure to stay consistent with the type of verb tense you use in each part of the phrase, i.e. if you go with an imperative (i.e. mairimis, cruthaimis) I would use that in both parts, and not mix one imperative with a verbal noun.
“Mairimis sa…” looks like a good option but if you’re concerned with the distinction you mention between being a passive participant in the present and taking an active role in it, this might mean exactly what you want (although many people may or may not notice the subtlety).
Between “Ag tarraingt chugainn…” and “Ag tabhairt aghaidh ar…” the former looks to me more positive (right?)
The first one does connote some sort of invitation, whereas the second could mean something like “facing up to” or “challenging” (it literally means “giving face to..”)
Another option might be “tugaimis faoin la ata inniu ann” or “tugaimis faoin saol mar ata” which means something like “let us undertake/set about the present / life as it is” (this is the imperative version – for verbal noun, change to “ag tabhairt faoi..”)
To state the obvious: translating pithy slogans or sayings is always tough, and it’s sometimes impossible to translate them exactly.
While not perfect, I might add the following possibilities:
“Go mairimid inniu. Go gcruthaímid amárach. Le chéile.”
That’s using the subjunctive, i.e.: “Let us live today. Let us create tomorrow. Together.”or
“Mairimis inniu. Cruthaímis amárach. Le chéile.”
That’s using the imperative and has a meaning similar to the example above but is a bit harder to translate into English. It’s less of a wish and more of an order than the above.Sorry, there was a mistake in one of the alternatives I offered above. In fact, it should read: “Ag tarraingt chugainn an lae atá inniu ann. Ag cruthú an lae atá le teacht.” The one with “Mairimis …” is correct.
Still, I actually prefer what Cúnla has suggested, especially the version with the subjunctive, for the reason that it’s more succinct and nicely rolls off the tongue… Besides, the verb ‘mair’ can sometimes mean something like “enjoy (married life, one’s birthday etc)”, which takes the meaning beyond merely “being alive” in a physiological sense.
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