Anyone's help would be much appreciated...especially someone who feels that they are fairly sure of their opinion.
We are getting married in just a few months, and have delayed the ordering of our custom celtic wedding bands, trying to verify the details of their engravings. We have decided on "mo chroí duit", which we believe translatees to "i'd give you the blood of my heart". This was taken from a book on tradional Irish weddings.
Is the translation accurate? Anyone know anything about the history of the phrase? And, most importantly, is it grammatically correct? Obviously, this is important to confirm prior to engraving it on our wedding bands!
Thanks so much for the help!
Chatty Kathy & Hubby

Literally, the words mean "my heart to you." (mo chroí duit) Contexturally, the words mean "My heart is yours."

I don't know much about traditional Irish weddings so I wouldn't be much help in that arena but it appears your translation is a bit off. I think, and I can't stress enough the word think, your phrase would be

"Tarbhfainn tú mo fhuil na croí"

I'm just taking a stab at it (no pun) as I don't have full command of future conditonal, subjunctive etc tenses. If if this is what you REALLY want to say, wait until it is confirmed. If you want to keep your original phrase then, yes, I believe it is gramatically correct. (And it's more likely to fit in the confines of a wedding band!)

Le meas. Adh mór ort, (Respectfully. Good luck!)

James

Thanks alot, James.
You're probably right (regarding the space issue)!
I'll check into the "blood of my heart" translation...it seems a bit of a stretch to me as well, but I was assuming that it possibly, traditionally, had been commonly used in that context. (?)

Anyone have any further input on that?

(Thanks for your help, James!!!)

I found this at:

www.florilegium.org/files/ACCESS/finger-rings-msg.text

"From: Medieval Siege Society
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Posey rings
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 20:37:18 +0100
Organization: MSS

Hello Laura,

The book you need is "English Posies and Posy Rings" by Joan Evans. It
lists about 3000.

The language used in many early posy rings was Norman French, with
French, Latin and English used in later times. The posies were
originally written on the outside, moving to the hidden inside of the
ring in later (mid 16th Century onwards) times.

These are some examples from the 15th century

INSCRIPTION=============TRANSLATION
AMOUR VINCIT OM=========Love conquers all
AMOUR ET CONSTANCE======Love and steadfastness
ERUNT DUO IN CAME UNA===They shall be two in one flesh
IEME LA BELLE===========Love is beautiful
IN BONE FAY=============In good faith
MON COR AVEZ============Have my heart
AUTRE NE VUEIL==========Desire no other
SAUNZ DEPARTIR==========Without division (all my love is yours)

NUL AUTRE===============None other
PRIVATA DI TE MORIO=====Deprived of thee I shall die
POUR AMOUR … SAY DOVE===For love so sweet
SANS MAL DESYR==========Without evil wish
SEMPER AMEMUS===========May we love forever
UNE DEZIR===============One desire

I hope this helps."

(format is mine)

In my humble opinion "MON COR AVEZ" and "Have my heart" and "mo chroí duit" are all more or less equvalent. Perhaps an
Irish speaker of norman extraction might use the later phrase.