I'd like to build my vocabulary between immersion weekends...and so I'm going to attempt that time-honored method of learning a language without much opportunity for conversational practice: translation...

But I will need help. So here's my plan. I'm going to start translating books I've always wanted to read. I'll post my results in this thread. Those kind enough to check my work will get to read great books too. Perhaps I will then donate my translations to Project Gutenberg in an effort to make more Irish texts available online.

Anyway...If i did this, would there be any takers on actually reading what I've done? The first book on my list (partially because of its short length) is Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground.

okay...here it is...my first attempt to translate something this long...i'm sure there are mistakes...let me know if this makes sense and what i've gotten wrong...when I get a post I'll do more...the beginning of Notes from the Underground

Notaí as an Frithbheart

FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

CUID I

Frithbheart*
*Tá an úadar dialainne agus na dialann féin samhailteach, go deimhin. Fós, tá sé follasach a ní amháin d'fhéadfadh, ach caithfidh sé go mbíonn duine den sórt sin faoi go an úadar seo notaí in ár sochaí, nuair a chuimhnigh muid an tosca de réir tá ár sochaí déanta. Rinne iarracht orm go nocht ag an póbal níos soiléir ná coitianta, duine sa seanam deireanach. Is ionadaí é as glúin beo fós. I blogh seo, ainmnithe "Frithbheart," tionscain seo duine sé féin agus a dearcadh, agus déan iarracht sé go mínigh na h-údair cad chuige thaispeán sé, agus iallach a chur air i lár sinn. Suimithe na fíornotaí daoine seo sna blogh dara faoi imeachtaithe in a beo. --NOTA ÚDAIR

A Antaine, a chara,

I think you will better served in building vocabulary by translating from Irish to English than from English to Irish. You will miss Irish idiom with the later and consequently will tend to translate into Béarlachas.

Think of the motivation of your readers. I suspect most Gaelgeoirí will be more interested in helping you translate Irish literature into English, than in helping you translate translated English (translated from Russian, or are you translating directly from the Russian?) into Irish.

(Message edited by lúcas on December 12, 2004)

(Message edited by lúcas on December 12, 2004)

Seconded!

Also, may I suggest that when you look up an Irish version of an English word, that you double check it by looking up the word you have chosen in an Irish-English dictionary.

"Frithbheart" is a single act of opposition, rather than a state of opposition as suggested by underground.

Notaí ó i measc an freasúra Maybe.

Also, there is a tendecy in your translatoin to do violence to verbs. I don't have the grammatical terms to tell you what is wrong, so I hope you will be able to synthesize form examples I give you.

Are using "blogh" as fragment?
tionscain does not make sense in this context.

Sa bhlogh seo, darbh ainm Frithbheart, cuireann an duine seo é fhéin agus a dhearcadh in iúl...

Without the english, I shan't be able to make sense of the rest, I'm afraid.

I blogh seo, ainmnithe "Frithbheart," tionscain seo duine sé féin agus a dearcadh, agus déan iarracht sé go mínigh na h-údair cad chuige thaispeán sé, agus iallach a chur air i lár sinn.

Here is somewhere to start, Antaine
A collection of texts in various dialects

http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaeilge/corpus/

point taken...thank you

Fáilte romhat. Don't be discouraged though: it's not that I could make no sense of what you wrote, just that I couldn't be confident enough of meeting the original sense.

Translating high literature is a tough place to start, because it is going to be rich in idioms.

not only that..but the sentences are tremendously complex...

Bheul, bíonn na Rúisigh mar sin go hiondúil!

And I'm not sure how accurate the original translation from Russian was, anyway!

(Message edited by aonghus on December 13, 2004)