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Cake day: July 30th, 2023
  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.world•Are AI Models Advanced Enough To Translate Literature? The Debate Is Roiling Publishing: Major publishers are experimenting with automated translations, hundreds of which have already been produced.English
    131·
    8 hours ago

    Even with humans, there are good translations and bad translations.

    Some of my favorite authors did not natively write in English and the translators did a stellar job of capturing the nuance of the original.

    I can’t imagine AI giving anything other than a straight denotative translation. It would be readable, but with no soul.

    Here’s a passage from Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s “The Shadow of the Wind” in Spanish (“La sombra del viento”):

    “En una ocasión oí comentar a un cliente habitual en la librería de mi padre que pocas cosas marcan tanto a un lector como el primer libro que realmente se abre camino hasta su corazón. Aquellas primeras imágenes, el eco de esas palabras que creemos haber dejado atrás, nos acompañan toda la vida y esculpen un palacio en nuestra memoria al que, tarde o temprano —no importa cuántos libros leamos, cuántos mundos descubramos, cuánto aprendamos u olvidemos—, vamos a regresar. Para mí, esas páginas embrujadas siempre serán las que encontré entre los pasillos del Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados.”

    The English translation:

    “Once, in my father’s bookshop, I heard a regular customer say that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later - no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget - we will return. For me those enchanted pages will always be the ones I found among the passageways of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.”

    Google translate:

    “I once heard a regular customer at my father’s bookstore comment that few things leave a lasting impression on a reader as much as the first book that truly makes its way into their heart. Those first images, the echo of those words we think we’ve left behind, stay with us for a lifetime and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later—no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, how much we learn or forget—we will return. For me, those haunted pages will always be the ones I found in the aisles of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.”

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