G+ LoME Archive
Post 3mzctUkjgRA
Matt Coombes, Marian Tak, Lőrinczi Gábor, Poetry, Jim Coish, Tamas Ferencz, translations

Marian Tak Jun 08, 2016 (06:32)

Hello there :). I have a question regarding the translation of the quotes from Tolkien's books. Is it possible for you to translate it from english to elvish?
"A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities."
I would be very grateful if you can do that. It's for a tattoo :).
Thanks in advance and I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
PS. Matt from Facebook's Learn Elvish sent me here :).

Tamas Ferencz Jun 08, 2016 (10:10)

Hi +Marian Tak - your request poses certain difficulties in both major Elvish languages  - namely that in Quenya we do not have a word for 'thousand' and in Sindarin we do not have a word for 'reality, real, actual, true, fact'. Still, I can try to paraphrase a bit and translate the quote in Quenya like this:

Erinqua olor ná melehta lá enwaron úme.
"A single dream is mightier than a multitude of facts."

I am sure someone will give it a go in Sindarin, too.

Lőrinczi Gábor Jun 08, 2016 (13:52)

What would be the S cognate of Q enwa, *enu? If so, then "ôl erui belaith athan meneg *enwath".

Marian Tak Jun 08, 2016 (19:34)

Hey guys! Thank you very much for effort and your time, I appreciate it very much!
I was searching the Internet and there's slight possibility that I've found the translated quote. However I'm not sure if it's it. Could you help with that, please?
The one on the bottom of the photo:
http://rs739.pbsrc.com/albums/xx40/l7388/tengwar/beckyann-1.png?w=480&h=480&fit=clip

Jim Coish Jun 09, 2016 (04:17)

The quote is in english.

Marian Tak Jun 09, 2016 (08:37)

So, is it english phrase translated letter by letter to english? Am I getting it right?

Tamas Ferencz Jun 09, 2016 (08:48)

+Marian Tak
indeed; it is still English, just transcribed into Tengwar.

Matt Coombes Jun 09, 2016 (14:34)

For the record, the Tengwar is written correctly in an orthographic spelling and has omitted the diphthongs available to the system - but this is personal preference... Glad you were able to find the help you needed here Marian!