i'm looking for the english to gaelish translation for just the phrase "may the road rise to meet you" thank you VERY much! xo

Fáilte don fhóram, a Kate! (Welcome to the forum!)

I think you're probably looking for this phrase: Go n-éirí an bóthar leat.

It doesn't actually mean "may the road rise to meet you" -- but that's a very common mistranslation of it.

The confusion arises because the verb éirigh on its own means to "rise." However, with the preposition le (which the leat here is a form of) it means to "succeed" instead. So,

Go n-éirí an bóthar leat.
May you succeed on your road.

Abigail

Shíl mé gur "Bon voyage" an béarla a bhí air.


Nach iontach an cultúr a eascraíonn as tuaillí gréithre?

quote:

Shíl mé gur "Bon voyage" an béarla a bhí air.

Go díreach!

Go n-éirí an bóthar leat. = Bon voyage. = Buen viaje. = Gute Reise.

A Dhe'n Fhios,
Cad tá tú a rá liom :-)?

Fan mar a bhfuil tú, a Fhearn, agus cloisfidh muid níos minice uait mar sin! :-) Dála an scéil...

Here's another one which begins with "go" in Irish rather than "bon, buen", etc.:

Go ndéana sé a mhaith duit! = Bon appétit! = ¡Buen provecho! = Mahlzeit!

A Dhiabhail! Sin an focal a chasaim le lucht a deireanns "Go raibh maith agat".

Cuir é sin i do mhála!

Difríocht eile idir leath Chonn agus leath an té eile (Mogha? Eoghain? ní cuimhin liom)

Whenever I have heard the phrase "may the road rise to meet you, I never thought of it meaning that the road levitated. I had immediately thought of another meaning of "rise" which is "to succeed." So yes, "éirigh" by itself equates to the verb "rise," as in levitate, but "éirigh le" also means "rise" as in "succeed."

There are many definitions of the verb "rise." They can be found at www.dictionary.com Here's the one I was referring to:

rise: To uplift oneself to meet a demand or challenge: She rose to the occasion and won the election.

I would give credit to the person who translated the phrase as "may the road rise to meet you" rather than discredit her or him for using one of the other definitions of the verb "rise." We might not hear "rise" used often to mean "succeed" but it is nevertheless a valid definition.

quote:

Go n-éirí an bóthar leat.
May you succeed on your road.

Here an early prayer for a successful "sét" (modern "séad" = bealach, turas = path, journey), much in the same spirit:

http://www.sengoidelc.com/node/229

A Mhic Léinn,

I take your point very well that every effort should get credit, even in respect of translations that are somewhat off the beam. But equally, I think, there is a responsibility to point out (always gently and with sensitivity!) where errors have occurred. Even Homer (and I don't mean Simpson!) nods. We all gain by encouragement, and laying fault and blame achieves nothing.

"I think you're probably looking for this phrase: Go n-éirí an bóthar leat.

It doesn't actually mean "may the road rise to meet you" -- but that's a very common mistranslation of it.

The confusion arises because the verb éirigh on its own means to "rise." However, with the preposition le (which the leat here is a form of) it means to "succeed" instead. So,

Go n-éirí an bóthar leat.
May you succeed on your road"

So the phrase is a mistranslation of the real thing?

A Mhic Léinn, tá cúpla fadhb agam leis an bhféidearthacht sin. The biggest one is that, even if you accept "rise to meet" as a synonym for "succeed at" (which I grant you it nearly is!) the grammar doesn't match up.

In an éirigh...le phrase, it's the object of the le, not the subject of the éirigh, who does the succeeding. This is exactly the opposite of how it is in English. Mar shampla:
d'éirigh liom sa scrúdú -- I succeeded in (i.e. I passed) the exam
má éiríonn sé leat -- if you succeed at it
go n-éirí go geal leat -- may you succeed brightly

So if I were to translate "Go n-éirí an bóthar leat" using "rise to meet" instead of "succeed," I'd still wind up with you, not the road, doing the rising-to-meet.

Scríobh Odwyer:

quote:

So the phrase is a mistranslation of the real thing?

As far as I know, yes. "Mistranslation" isn't a word I apply often, but when an error has become as well-entrenched as this one I tend to feel more drastic measures are needed to dislodge it.

If I had to speculate, I'd say it must have been translated first as "May the road rise with you," by someone who simply wasn't aware of the "éirigh...le" idiom. But since that doesn't make too much sense in English, the more poetic-sounding "rise to meet you" version is what has survived.

Abigail

A Abigail,

First of all, I think that your translation of "go n-éirí an bóthar leat" as "may you succeed on your road" is a valid translation and I should have mentioned that early.

But in the examples you give directly above, I don't think the object(s) of "le" are doing the succeeding, at least when it comes to the original Irish. Again, I should point out that I think your translations of the examples are accurate and valid, but not the only valid ones. If we were writing or speaking only in Irish we would consider "an bothar" to be the subject and the one doing the "rising to" or equivalently "the succeeding." It's only when we translate to English that we have the opportunity to rearrange the sentence so that we have "may you succeed on your (the) road."

For example, how would you translate the following well known phrase, which I'm sure you're familiar with: "Go n-éirí an t-ádh leat."? I think most people would say it means "may you have good luck" which I think is a perfectly valid translation. But if we look in Ó Dónaill's Foclóir Bearla Gaeilge, we find it translated as "[may] good luck attend you." So we see Ó Dónaill maintaining the original Irish sentence structure with "luck" doing the "attending." Here's an example of using an entirely different word, in this case "attend" to convey the same meaning as "rise to" or "succeed with."

I think the confusion arises with persons who are not familiar with the meaning of "rise to" equating to "succeed." This confusion has been demonstrated here on previous threads and on other forums, with such remarks as "the road is not levitating" and summarily dismissing the translation as inaccurate.

I think there's quite a bit of accuracy when you indicate above that "the road is rising to meet you" is poetic, and I feel that it's perfectly acceptable for the original translation "may the road rise to meet you" to maintain the same subject-object relationship just as Ó Dónaill does with "go n-éirí an t-ádh leat" and at the same time employ poetic license. It's been done thoughout the ages by many of the great translations from works of that great employer of etiquitte, Homer to the present day.

Anyway, I asked my son (who's a math major so he has to be right, no? ) what "may the road rise to meet you" means and he responded with "have a good trip." I also have a mouse-pad which I use daily that my daughter gave me from her trip to Ireland which starts with "may the road rise to meet you." So, I may be the only one here who thinks the translation is valid, but I'll continue to use and enjoy the poetry of the phrase until I'm convinced otherwise.

Instead of saying CHEERS, my father used to say Slainte, ?? Huanais Cower, I think it is Health, ?? and strenght. Can someone help?

Is there a reply to this?

Many Thanks.

Slainte is indeed health. I'm guessing that you spelled those others phenetically because those are not Irish spellings. But I think that someone will be able to help you with them.

Beir bua agus beannacht

Neart = Strength

Steph,

From you phonetic spelling above, perhaps the word for strength was "Cumhacht" which means power;authority;influence;strength,energy.

"Sláinte agus Cumhacht" = "Health and Strength"

quote:

Slainte, ?? Huanais Cower

"Cower" sounds a lot like the noun "cabhair" = help, assistance. I'm not sure what to make of "huanais", or even how to say it! ;-)

OK, I just ran it through my head again, and came up with this, which I'm pretty confident was what your dad said:

Sláinte chugainn agus cabhair!

He would have said "chugainn" (= to us) in the Munster way, which gets rid of the medial hard "g", and he would have shorted "agus" (= and) to "is", which is a very common contraction, so:

Sláinte chughainn is cabhair!

Literally: Health to us and help!

Sláinte chugaibh 's cabhair,
's go maraibh go deo in bhur ramhair,
's bhfása gruaig ar bhur ngabhal
Chomh fada le meigeall gabhair!

Aistrigh anois é, a dhuine gan náire!

Not quite literal (and edited for the younger readers), but here goes:

"Good health to you and your helpers and may you never be in want. May hair grow on your xxxxx as long as a goat's beard"

I imagine Steph's father left out the last sentence when in polite company.

I just found a slightly different version in the Gaeilge-A archives:

Sláinte chugat 's cabhair
Dealbh go deo ná rabhair
'S go bhfása clúmh ar do ghabhal
Chomh fada le meigeall gabhair

And judging by Steph's phonetics, the father probably used "chugainn" instead of "chugaibh" or "chugat".