isabeltranslates

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 328: Na Větrově, built in 1925.

background is a sunset imagine waking up well rested. wouldn't that be some mythical shit. @girlsthinkimfunny

Will I get some mercy one day? 🙃

The danger to my job from AI isn't that AI can do my job, it's that my job is made even more precarious by the way AI is shaping ideas of the value of work. It can't do my job, but it can be part of convincing people (incorrectly) that my job isn't necessary.

This, absolutely. So many people think that translation is "just replacing words", but there's so much more to it. A translator translates meaning, not just words. AI doesn't understand meaning, it only recognises words.

Which is why, @nytimes.com, learning that a piece of writing is AI changes how people feel about it, in the same way that most people are repulsed by learning a once-favoured artist is a rapist: because context is inherent to interpreting art, and the sole context of genAI is profound contempt.

We call AI output slop not because it's incapable of regurgitating something beautiful, but because vomiting up chunks of mixed restaurant meals is not the same as being a chef. That some of the upchuck can still be parsed as it was on the plate is not thanks to digestion or emesis, but to cooking.

What’s fucking enraging about this is that every lovely turn of phrase the AI churns out is human-authored. Google each fragment of the below - “forged in dying stars,” “created in stellar furnaces,” “the universe is not indifferent to us,” “implicated in something vast” - and you’ll find a source.

Two firefighters resting, sitting on the plinth of the "Citizen Firefighter" statue.

Quite an image on the BBC live page (www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...; no photographer credited).

Sounds as if they've saved the station and the hotel, and more importantly, without loss of life.

Citizens; heroes.

In a hypothetical #SFinTranslation magazine, what kinds of columns would you want to see included? 🌏📚🤖

Arriving in London!

I am also glad to be travelling alone. My usual travelling companion would have exploded with anxiety by now.

Made the connection at Crewe despite arriving a bit late. The train is missing several carriages & is of course madly busy. I managed to get a seat so can continue working, but I suspect the train company will get a lot of complaints about the service.

No cat at Crewe station or dog on this train.

Carlisle, and I see neither cat nor stationmaster. Crewe had better not disappoint!

Photo of a red labrador under the table on a train. The dog's head is bent and her expression is that of a dog that nobody ever pays any attention to. Despite the fact that she gets a pat from everyone who goes past. She is very friendly despite being so neglected.

There is a dog on the train! This is Millie.

...Reusable coffee cup. Mask. Spot patches (because mask). Hot water bottle (needed in the absence of hot air husband). Books. Emergency chocolate. Back-up emergency chocolate. Back-up back-up emergency chocolate.

I think I have everything, & I'm sure travel never used to be this complicated!

Keys. Tickets. Credit card. Phone. Lipstick. Change of underwear & other clothes. Earplugs and eyemask. Medication. Additional painkillers. Laptop. New ipad charger acquired at station; ipad is charging. Toiletries. Refillable water bottles, containing the last Scottish water I'll have for 5 days...

Also, Past Me saw fit to book a ticket to London with a change at Crewe.

Past Me's reasoning is not accessible to Present Me.

However, this does mean that I will not be fast asleep at Crewe, so if there is no cat walking up and down the station, I will be most displeased.

Packing to go away for a few days. My ipad charger has chosen right now to stop working. (My ipad is elderly so I can't just use any charger!)

Yet again I miss the times when packing didn't involve chargers at all. Hey ho.

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 327: U lesa, built in 1925.

The front cover of the novel The Fox, by Sólveig Pálsdóttir, and translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates. The cover image shows a mountain in winter, with thick snow lying in the foreground and a night sky above the peak. In the centre is a stylised image of a fox's head, consisting of geometric shapes with white outlines arranged in a composition. The title is in red, the author's name and a puff quote are in black.

The Fox (Refurinn) by Sólveig Pálsdóttir, translated by Quentin Bates. Sajee comes to Höfn to take up a nonexistent job. She finds something else... but what are employers Selma & Ísak up to? Then she disappears. Can disgraced detective Guðgeir find her before it's too late? #translatedlit 🌐 💙📚

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 326: Sulická, built before 1925, and part of Libušská (not covered yet) until 1975.

I had been planning on spending Tues eve lying in a darkened room & moaning faintly (so.much.extroverting!!) but provided this is an early evening thing... I might be persuaded...

Wikipedia has an 'AI' translation problem A non-profit offering thousands of translations for Wikipedia has been found to be introducing errors and fake citations at a rapid pace.

Wikipedia has an ‘AI’ translation problem. A non-profit offering thousands of translations for Wikipedia has been found to be introducing errors and fake citations at a rapid pace.
www.pcworld.com/article/3079...
via @pcworld.com
<AI makes errors? So very surprising.> </sarcasmoff>
#xl8 #langsky

I'm very happy to hear that.

There are so many quite small things that can be done to prevent such issues. I'm also a fan of a cast list in a book – see the Wolf Hall trilogy, or ASOIAF – & we even have a copy of War&Peace that has the cast list on a bookmark. Genius!

Radovan (see how easy that mistake would be to make?)

So I asked the author, who told me to go with Radoslav.

Human translators do that sort of thing. AI does not and cannot.

#xl8 #literarytranslation #amtranslating 🌐 💙📚

It's not just a general guide, it includes the pronunciations of personal & place names. Which meant that I spotted something noone else had noticed: a small continuity error. One very minor character had 2 different but similar first names, the 1st at the start & the 2nd much later: Radoslav and
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How do translators add value to books in #translation?

I included a pronunciation guide in this one – something I often want in #translatedlit, sometimes even when I speak the language (*glares very sternly at French*) – & for a less-familiar language like Czech, I think it could be very helpful.
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#xl8 #literarytranslation 💙📚

A brown penguin chick of some kind. It looks very much like a man in a suit. It is bedraggled and miserable

Made it to Friday but at what cost