Tattoo “An Irish Blessing” Confirmation

[darra83]

Hi folks,
I was wondering if any fluent Irish speaker could help me out, hopefully from a Gaeltacht area.
I am getting a tattoo of “An Irish Blessing” (well a bastardised version) and would love it if someone could help me out with the translation, as its going to be there for life I want to have it bang on.

I have been working on the translation myself and have had help from a few Irish speaking sources but some of them say it is good and others say that it wrong in parts or doesn’t make sense.

What I want to translate is:
My Family and Friends
May the road succeed you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
May the hand of a friend always be near.
And until we meet again, may your God hold you in the palm of his hand.

What I have so far is:
(Mo Chlann agus Mo Chairde) / (Mo Mhuintir)
Go n-éirí an bóthar leat
Go raibh an chóir ghaoithe i gcónaí leat.
Go dtaitní an ghrian go bog bláth ar d’aghaidh.
Go dtite an bháisteach go bog mín ar do ghoirt.
Agus féadfaidh an lámh le cara a bheith I gcónaí in aice leis.
Agus go gcasfar le chéile sinn arís,
go gcoinní do Dhia i mbosa a láimhe thú.

Any help you guy’s could provide would be much appreciated and greatly received!
Thank you,
Darra83

[darra83]

Thank you very much for your fast reply, I have noted your corrections and appreciate them very much.

That ‘go bog bláith’ line has thrown a few of my other sources too. But apparently there is no direct translation of what i want to say in Irish, so got that line and the ‘May the hand of a friend always be near’ lines from a yahoo forum i think.

Can you use ‘A Mhuintir’ to cover friends and family?? I’ve been told it means my people so I was just going to use it as a stand alone to cover both.

Once again thank you very much for your speedy input, it is gratefully received!

I look forward to seeing others opinions it too, as I’m trying to get 2 or 3 people to agree before I get inked.

[Héilics Órbhuí]

I only wonder about one thing (and I don’t have the answer): you start out addressing multiple people but each line afterwards addresses one person. I don’t know whether this is standard and it’s understood that it can only be addressing one person at a time even though the blessing was given to multiple people. It could be that’s how it’s done, but I’d want to confirm that before I get it inked.

[Labhrás]

I only wonder about one thing (and I don’t have the answer): you start out addressing multiple people but each line afterwards addresses one person.

Yes, it should be 2nd person plural,
… libh (instead of leat)
… ar bhur n-aghaidh (instead of ar d’aghaidh)
… ar bhur ngoirt (instead of ar do ghoirt)
… le bhur dtaobh (instead of le do thaobh)
… bhur nDia (instead of do Dhia)
… sibh (instead of thú)

[Author]

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