Go dtí tú slán
Written for English speakers and editorial rather than sourced. It will get you close enough to be understood, and it is not a substitute for a native speaker. Recorded audio is planned; see About.
When to use it For an emigrant’s card or any send-off where what you mean is “come back to us safely”.
About this saying
Ó Dónaill’s dictionary abbreviates its own headwords to a tilde, so what the 1977 entry literally prints is “Go ~ tú slán”. And the headword it sits under is a verb form the dictionary marks as literary: the present subjunctive of the verb come. Expanding that tilde correctly is what settled this record’s wording, and the citation records the expansion.
The gloss Ó Dónaill gives (“may you come back safe, safe return”) is what separates this blessing from its near-twin Go dté tú slán, one letter and one verb away. This one blesses the return; that one blesses the going. Two farewells, not two spellings.
Provenance
Where this wording comes from. We publish nothing we cannot point at.
- DictionaryÓ Dónaill, Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla (1977)s.v. dtí, marked "Lit:". The literary present subjunctive of the verb come; printed "Go ~ tú slán" glossed "may you come back safe, safe return"