Hello! I am a philosophy student in Mexico and we just had a Nietzsche seminar, I want a rib tattoo with one of his phrases in Gaelic, as my grandparents are from ireland and speak a bit of Gaelic. ¿can anyone help me out please? It's a weird mix of things that are special to me, Nietzsche's work and Gaelic. Do you think you could help me? Thanks!!

“You must be ready to burn
yourself in your own flame;
how could you rise anew if
you have not first become ashes?”

― Friedrich Nietzsche, (from Thus Spoke Zarathustra)


One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Here's an effort. I've pared the Irish version down slightly to roughly match the syllable count of the English (I'm guessing Nietzsche wouldn't mind so maybe you won't).


Bí réidh le thú féin a dhó
istigh i do bhladhm féin;
cén chaoi a n-aiséireofá
gan luaith a dhéanamh díot féin?

This translates as:

Be ready to burn yourself
within your own flame;
how would you rise anew
without reducing yourself to ashes?

Wait for corrections/improvements.

I know we have some Irish-speakers here who are also fluent (or at least competent) in German as well. It might be better in that case to work from the original German text:

First thing that leaps out to me is the strong emphasis on verbrennen ("burn"). It's highly unusual to put the verb at the beginning of the sentence like this--and it's something which is possible in both Irish and German but not in English. Also note that verbrennen means "burn up, burn completely" and that he says you must "will/want" (wollen) to be burned up, not simply "be ready" (bereit sein). Wollen appears again in the second clause where it is translated with "could". It might be acceptable to render this with the Irish conditional, but that seems a little weak to me. "Rise", on the other hand, is poetic licence; the verb is actually "become new" (neu werden).

Great! thankyou!

Nice work finding the original, a Dhomhnaillín.

Here's an attempt from the German:

Tá ort a bheith sásta thú féin a dhó go hiomlán
istigh i do bhladhm féin:
cén chaoi a n-éireodh leat thú féin a athnuachan
mura n-éirí tú i do luaithreach ar an gcéad dul síos !

Await correction or confirmation ...

_________________
Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).