- This topic has 22 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 8 years ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Is it possible to write the subjunctive sentence using “the” (“Let us live the today. Let us create the tomorrow.”)?
If I remember correctly, both ‘today’ (inniu) and ‘tomorrow’ (amárach) were originally composite words or constructs which already contained the definite article… rather like ‘aujourd’hui’ in French. So, if you want to add the definite article, you shall have to go for a different expression, e.g. “an lá atá inniu ann” (the day of today = today) and “an lá atá le teacht” (the day to come). But I don’t know if that makes sense in Irish.
You don’t need the article in Irish: inniu and amárach are already definite, but I can see why you would feel like you needed one from a Romance language perspective 🙂
I try to summarize. So far there seem to be four valid options:
(1) Mairimis sa lá atá inniu ann. Cruthaímis an lá atá le teacht. In éindi.
(2) Ag tarraingt chugainn an lá atá inniu ann. Ag cruthú an lá atá le teacht. In éindí.
(3) Go mairimid inniu. Go gcruthaímid amárach. Le chéile.
(4) Mairimis inniu. Cruthaímis amárach. Le chéile.
As far as I understand, each one has a different connotation, and none of them is the same as the English sentence. Is there any of them which you would exclude? Or any which sounds better than the others?
@Cúnla: reading your English translation of (3) and (4) I got the impression that one could understand the sentence as an invitation to live the present not bothering about the future. Is there the risk to interpret the sentence that way? Or did I get it wrong?
Even better, I think:
Inniu go mairimid. Amárach go gcruthaímid. Le chéile. This is also in the subjunctive, but with word order better suited, perhaps, to a slogan.
Not to confuse things further, but you could also possibly say something like:
Inniu a mhaireachtáil. Amárach a chruthachtáil. Le chéile. This one is actually closer to the Italian (“To live today. To create tomorrow. Together.”), albeit somewhat less natural in Irish.
But no, none is exactly the same as the English (or the Italian!).
Thank you Cúnla. Is there the risk that “Go mairimid inniu. Go gcruthaímid amárach.” could be interpreted as an invitation to live the present not bothering about the future? Or is it just my impression?
(2) Ag tarraingt chugainn an lá atá inniu ann. Ag cruthú an lá atá le teacht. In éindí.I made a mistake in that one. It should actually read:
Ag tarraingt chugainn [color=red]an lae[/color] atá inniu ann. Ag cruthú [color=red]an lae [/color]atá le teacht. In éindí.Personally, I prefer option (3) offered by Cúnla:
Go mairimid inniu. Go gcruthaímid amárach. Le chéile.The same option with inverted word order (Inniu go mairimid …) also sounds good, but I think it runs the risk of putting too much stress on ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’ and could be taken to mean something “Today is for living. Let us not bother with creating until tomorrow”. At least, that’s my reading of it.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
