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So I was bored one day and decided to translate the blurb of every book in Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time”. I’m not sure if my translation is correct, however. The original English goes thus:
“The Wheel of Time turns and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth and even myth is long forgotten when the age that gave it birth returns again.
What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the shadow.”
[cite]Roth na hAimsire[/cite]
“Casann Roth na hAimsire agus tagann aoiseanna is téann siad thart, ag fágáil cuimhní a éiríonn ina bhfinscéalta. Leánn an béaloideas ina mhiotas agus bíonn miotas féin ligthe i ndearmad nuair a fhilleann an aois a rug é arís.
B’fhéidir le gach rud a bhí, gach rud a bheidh, agus gach rud atá, fós a thitim faoin scáth.”
What do ye think? I’m especially interested in the placement of “Ag fágáil”. “Bí” isn’t involved, and while I know that the progressive can be use a few other verbs as well, here it’s not right next to “téann”. Is that allowed? Writers of English are often advised to use present participles when writing in the past tense, in order to give a sense of immediacy, and it would be useful to know if that’s allowed in Irish too. Also, does anyone have a better translate of “to fade” into something else? “Leáigh” (to melt) was the closest I could find.
And I don’t plan on translating the whole book at this stage, before anyone asks. 🙂
Bheinn sona le haon freagraí!
So “Tréigeann an béaloideas ina mhiotas ” and “Meathann an béaloideas ina mhiotas” are fine? If so, then they’re a better translation of “fade”, without a doubt.
Go raibh maith agat, a hEadaoin.
Maybe I am just overthinking it, and you can use “ina” with any verb that involves a change of state. I have seen “ina” used to mean “turned into” with Athraigh and Tiontaigh before, as well as with Leáigh.
As for the present participle, maybe this works?
“Téann siad thart agus iad ag fágáil cuimhní”
Or does that mean “They pass while they are leaving memories”?
Now that I think about it, we say something almost exactly like this in Hiberno-English:
“It was half-two and me/I coming out of the pub”
which isn’t really what I’m going for. I’m not too sure.
“Casann Roth na hAimsire agus tagann aoiseanna is téann siad thart, ag fágáil cuimhní a éiríonn ina bhfinscéalta. Leánn an béaloideas ina mhiotas agus bíonn miotas féin ligthe i ndearmad nuair a fhilleann an aois a rug é arís.
B’fhéidir le gach rud a bhí, gach rud a bheidh, agus gach rud atá, fós a thitim faoin scáth.”
Fair play duit! It’s always a challenge to translate English idioms into Irish. I think “fade” and “give birth” have to be replaced by something else and you could also consider using the word “ré” instead of “aois”. Here’s my reworking of your original translation. Don’t look at it as a correction, rather as an possible alternative. By the way, what’s meant by “may fall under the shadow”?
“De réir mar a chasann Roth na hAimsire, tagann gach ré agus imíonn sí uainn, ag fágáil cuimhní a iompaítear ina bhfinscéalta. Ansin, glacann miotais áit na bhfinscéalta, ach beidh na miotais féin ligthe i ndearmad nuair a fhillfaidh an ré a chuir tús leo.
B’fhéidir le gach rud a bhí, gach rud a bheidh, agus gach rud atá, fós titim faoin scáth.”
Go raibh céad maith agat, a hOnuvanja. 🙂
In English your translation goes:
“As the Wheel of Time turns, every era comes and it leaves us, leaving memories that are turned into legends. Then myths take the place of the legends, but even the myths will be completely forgotten when the era that put a start to them returns.
Everything that was, everything that will be, and everything that is, could still fall under the shadow.”
Your translation is probably a lot more idiomatic, in that it’s more what native speakers might say in everyday life. But at the same time, we don’t really say “Monday gives birth to Tuesday” in English either, it isn’t a phrase you would find in a dictionary. It’s a kind of metaphor.
As for “aois” instead of “ré”, I used aois because “the Bronze Age” is “An Chré-Umhaois” in Irish, and since the author mentions “the Third Age” later in the book in a similar vein, I think that’s what he means here. But I’m not too sure.
The baddies in the book are associated with “darkness” and “shadow” and such things (Jordan wasn’t the greatness at originality at times) so “May fall under the shadow” is just a metaphor for “come under the baddies’ control” or something to that effect.
Tá fáilte romhat, Flup an Seabhaic! 🙂 Thanks for your explanation! Yes, “aois” is as good as “ré”, I just chose the latter in order to rule out possible ambiguity, because “aois” can also mean “the age of a person”. But if the context is clear, then that’s not an issue. As regards “giving birth”, I pondered over the online English-Irish dictionary, but couldn’t find anything similar, so I rephrased the metaphor. But of course, in translation there’s no single correct answer, which makes it all the more interesting… It would be interesting to see if other members come up with more suggestions/alternatives.
Go n-éirí leat!Tá fáilte romhat, Flup an Seabhaic! 🙂 Thanks for your explanation! Yes, “aois” is as good as “ré”, I just chose the latter in order to rule out possible ambiguity, because “aois” can also mean “the age of a person”. But if the context is clear, then that’s not an issue. As regards “giving birth”, I pondered over the online English-Irish dictionary, but couldn’t find anything similar, so I rephrased the metaphor. But of course, in translation there’s no single correct answer, which makes it all the more interesting… It would be interesting to see if other members come up with more suggestions/alternatives.
Go n-éirí leat!Is deacair an rud é aistriú gan dabht is gan amhras, ach is spéisúil an rud é freisin! 😉
But yeah, it’s good to see multiple angles on it, so thanks for that. Translation is always a battle between accuracy and idiomacy. You want to capture the author’s original intent but you also want something that doesn’t sound odd or badly written to a native speaker. I think both Irish versions of “Alice in Wonderland” are good examples of the extreme ends of the spectrum.
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