Gaelic Translation

[AmandaGreig]

Hi, I would like to put " It was then that I carried you" and "Never Forget" on my Mother's headstone but can't find anywhere. If anyone can help it would be much appreciated.

[Polwarth]

This raises the question: why put words on a gravestone in a language you cannot understand?

I don't speak Gaelic, and the few Gaelic speakers on here visit infrequently. I hope someone will come along soon and be able to assist you with your questions.

[Calum Mac Neill]

Poems are best left untranslated into other languages, where they often lose their succinctness and directness, and that would happen here with Gaelic. I agree with previous comment about not being quite able to relate to wanting a quote in Gaelic on the gravestone when the real quote you want is from a poem in English. The words of this poem in English clearly mean so much that you want them on a gravestone. Why change them by translating them into another language where they would sound more awkward?

"It was then that I carried you", just in case you don't know, is not in the original Footprints in the Sand poem. Mary Stevenson's original from 1936 is, "The times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand, is when I carried you."

'(We will) never forget' is a customary phrase on gravestones in English but not Gaelic. There are many ways to say "never forget" in Gaelic but you will never find one on a gravestone as it is an imperative, and generally only explicitly religious imperatives are noted on graves in Gaelic. A thing to say in Gaelic instead of this might be, "nar cuimhne gu bràth" (in our memory forever).

[Crofter]

Some statements cannot be literally translated into Gaelic. The meaning can.

The two statements that you intend to use could be construed as meaning that the mother should never forget who carried her, or it could be that you intend it to mean that you will never forget her.

Your intention as to what should be construed from the words, you see, will make a difference. If you used the two statements in English a reader could take either meaning.

In any case, sorry for your loss,

Regards,
Crofter