Tolkien Gateway > Forums > English to Sindarin Translation
Hello everyone. I am still learning Sindarin (and not very good at it).
I wanted to get "I am the Master of my Fate: I am the Captain of my Soul." tattooed across my shoulders. (Last two stanzas of "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley).
herdir= master amarth= doom/ fate hest= captain fae= soul/ spirit
I know this isn't quite right, but this is what I have so far.
Im herdîr od nîn amarth. Im hest od nîn fae:
Please help me correct my translation. I would hate to have a tattoo with incorrect grammar/ composition.
Thank you! —Unsigned comment by Kkleinow (talk • contribs).
- Oi. Tattoos. I'll be honest: I don't like "Elvish tattoos". Do it in English. It's just as meaningful, if not more, as you do it in the original language. Enough patronizing. On with the linguistics.
- Another problem is linguistical: Elvish (Sindarin, in your case) is by far not complete enough to be a fully functioning language. We miss key pieces of basic grammar, and Tolkien changes his mind a lot. Chances are, next year, Vinyar Tengwar or Parma Eldalamberon will publish something that completely contradicts something you have inked across your back.
- And now, the actual sentence. It's been years since I was good as this, so my skills aren't up to scratch. However, i'll give it a shot.
- First, Sindarin doesn't work like English. Od and o mean "of", but only in a locative sense ("Celebrimbor of Eregion"), not in any ownership sense.
- Possessives go after the object.
- Just to reiterate the thing about Tolkien changing his mind: im was used for the first person at first, then for stress only ("Me, I did this"), and then became reflexive ("myself")
- Herdir is only attested as mayor. "Master of Fate" is a translation of Turambar/Turamarth, so you'd better go with Tûr.
- I haven't found hest in the Hisweloke dictionary. Where did you find that?
- Faer as "spirit" (and "soul") has cosmological meanings that may or may not match with the meaning intended here (I don't know the context, so I can't tell)