Hello,

I was looking for some translation help for a tattoo. I have always wanted a tattoo in Irish as a way of honoring my great grandfather who moved from Schull, Ireland to America. As you can imagine I never really felt comfortable with an American tattooist putting Irish words on my back. However, I have been afforded the opportunity to travel to Ireland this summer in a study abroad program at my university, and I feel that getting the tattoo in Ireland would make the meaning behind it more powerful as well as ensuring punctuation and grammar. Unfortunately I am still very cautious since this will be permanent and would like as many translation opinions as possible. What I need translated is the following quote.

"I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul."

This is from a poem called Invictus by William Ernest Henley. Any help here would be greatly appreciated, as this is something very sentimental for me. As far as dialect common Irish is fine, or the dialect that would be used in the Schull region. I'm not sure what dialect that would be, but but I do know Schull is on one of the southern most shores of Ireland if that is a help.

Thank you for your time,
Casey O'Neal

p.s.-If anyone is just bored, or is looking for some translation practice it would be cool to see the whole poem in Irish. This is not part of my request, just something I think would be awesome to have typed up somewhere for future reference.

I'm not sure Irish is still spoken in Schull, but I guess the closest living dialects would be those of Múscraí and of Cleare Island.

We have some specialists of Múscraí Irish here, so I think they can answer

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Awesome! Thank you for the information! My great grandfather died a little over 13 years ago when I was just 7, and no one else in my family seemed as interested in Ireland as I am. Unfortunately when he passed on so did the answers to my curiosity . I do remember him speaking Irish and insisting that I not call it Gaelic, but I don't know which dialect he used or why he felt that way. He would always address me in letters and birthday cards as "Makushla" which I found out comes from Mo Chuisle meaning My Pulse thanks to the movie "Million Dollar Baby"(you should have seen my reaction when I first saw that movie and heard them use that name).

So again thank you, any and all information is greatly appreciated!
Casey

Hi Casey, sorry it took so long to get a reply and sorry to hear about your grandfather also!

Here is a very literal attempt but it has a nice ring to it:

"Is mise máistir mo chinniúna is captaen m'anama"

I am the master of my fate/ destiny and captain of my soul

or

"Is mise ceannaire mo chinniúna is captaen m'anama"

I am the leadar/ controller of my fate/ destiny and master of my soul

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Awesome, I really like the first one. Thank for your help.

Casey

Just wait for some confirmations first!

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Of course, I won't be getting the tattoo until June so by then I should have plenty of feedback.