[HN Gopher] How Translation Works, Book Title Edition
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       How Translation Works, Book Title Edition
        
       Author : janpio
       Score  : 22 points
       Date   : 2025-02-03 21:33 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (whatever.scalzi.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (whatever.scalzi.com)
        
       | IsaacZerh wrote:
       | "Common phrases in one language don't exist in another; cultural
       | references in one country mean nothing elsewhere, and so on. This
       | is why a computerized translation is fine for a bland business
       | email but will utterly fail for a novel."
       | 
       | I'm sure it's going to be indistinguishable very soon, if not
       | already.
        
       | RheingoldRiver wrote:
       | This is the only thing I think of now when I hear "that's amore"
       | - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/science/moray-eels-eat-la...
        
       | tkgally wrote:
       | This is a nice essay, with an excellent example of the challenges
       | and art of literary translation. But the author seems to assume
       | that "computer translation" is limited to services like Google
       | Translate or DeepL: put in a text, get a translation, with no
       | consideration of the context or purpose. Properly prompted LLMs
       | yield much better results and are already helping human
       | translators produce better translations than they could on their
       | own. Whether a completely automated workflow is possible for
       | translating literary texts in an artful and engaging way--I don't
       | know. But I wouldn't reject that possibility out of hand.
        
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       (page generated 2025-02-03 23:00 UTC)