Irish translation for “heart of a lion”

[Bob M]

I wanted to validate I have the correct Irish translation for heart of a lion. I believe it is Croi Leoin. Accent over the “I” in Croi.

[Seáinín]

That seems like a grammatically correct literal translation: croí leoin. I don’t know if it conveys the same meaning as Gaeilge as it does as Béarla. Let’s see if others offer alternatives that get to the meaning of the English phrase.

[Bob M]

Thank you for your responce. I would be interested to see if there are other translations for this phrase

[aonghus]

That is literally correct; but what do you mean by it?

Lion-hearted has an idiomatic meaning in English, i.e. very brave.

I don’t think that translates.

[Bob M]

Good question. What would be the translation for Lion-hearted

[Seáinín]

I wonder if any of these adjectives get to the meaning you are looking for:

laochta valorous, heroic
curata brave, heroic
misniúil courageous, hopeful, cheerful

They could be combined with croí to come up with something like:

croí laochta a valorous heart

[Bob M]

Thank you so much. This is very helpful and much appreciated

Bob

[Onuvanja]

“Croí leoin” is grammatically correct, but if you mean “Lionheart”, rather than “heart of a lion”, you should opt for “Leonchroí”. This is also how it’s rendered on the terminology web site Focal.ie.

As for idiomatic usage, there is a song by Clannad titled “Croí cróga” (“Brave Heart”), but in general, Irish doesn’t seem to use such collocations. It would be more natural to use the adjective on its own, e.g. “gaiscíoch cróga” (“brave warrior”), “fear cróga” (“brave man”), “bean chróga” (“brave woman”.

Expressions featuring the word “croí” (“heart”) tend to refer to feelings, rather than braveness: “cuireann sé gliondar ar mo chroí” (“it delights me”), “bhí a chroí briste” (“his heart was broken”), “crá chroí” (“torment”, literally “torment of the heart”), “cara mo chroí” (“my bosom friend”), “d’ardaigh sé mo chroí” (“it lifted my heart”), “ní raibh a chroí ann” (“his heart wasn’t in it”) etc.

Athbliain faoi mhaise dhaoibh uilig! 🙂

[Author]

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