MY RESISTANCE TO BEING DELUDED BY MACHINE TRANSLATORS
Consider this point: even for someone like me, a self-employed professional translator and as such a professional linguist, it can be easy to opt for a machine translator in order that I may understand something written in a language I don’t speak (well, certainly if I were determined not to pay for it and I wanted it immediately) – like this Hungarian newspaper article, for example http://magyarhirlap.hu/cikk/137277/Vulkanpolitikusok
You know, it wasn’t that long ago that I mentioned that my own father has expressed concern about machine translators posing a threat to the translation industry, which would of course be very bad news for someone like me. To a certain extent, I can actually agree with him. For example, consider what this says about machine translators today: in French “bon” means “good” and “sang” means “blood”, but enter “bon sang” into Google Translate and you will see it translated into English not as “good blood” – even though it will translate “bon” alone as “good” and “sang” alone as “blood” – but rather as the less-than-polite French interjection which means something like “bloody hell” or “for God’s sake”; it indicates a loss of patience.
In any case, this blog features a new exercise / project I thought of that is related to what I do – one which has machine translation at the heart of its concept. Actually, the whole concept was not too far away from the project I did in which I got someone to translate that Italian newspaper article into English for me – I don’t speak Italian either (well, not enough for basic conversation) – where I ran each individual word in the original article through Google Translate in turn (like I was simply using a bilingual dictionary), after which I took the output and compiled a new text from it, the most lucid one I could think of based on the most sensible message it all suggested in my eyes; I have publicly invited comparison between the real translation Alex Millward did for me and the product of my own work (so to speak) ever since. This exercise differs in that I actually made Google Translate deal with whole sentences this time…
It will help a great deal if you can speak French or at least have access to someone who does when you look at what I did in this exercise. Anyway… yes, I put my trust in someone to provide me with a good English translation of this newspaper article (by the name of Robert Young; I found him on LinkedIn), while I myself had it translated into FRENCH (one of the foreign languages I DO speak) using Google Translate, after which I translated that into English to the best of my ability… with a commitment to not letting myself be deluded. You could say that you know very well that the original newspaper article itself is not trying to mislead people / trip them up (at least in the sense of understanding / knowledge of language from an academic perspective), but when I had its text translated into French with Google Translate… it could be a different story. After all, a case in point: everyone has heard of Google Translate songs (I recently posted a Tweet with a link to a video evidencing that they have been featured on the Jimmy Fallon Show in the United States; that’s how popularised they have become). So while I insist that you should take Robert Young’s word over my own if you really want to know what this Hungarian newspaper article is all about, hopefully you can understand my own passion and pride with my own work that is discussed by the article that you are currently reading.
So anyway… when I put the text of this Hungarian newspaper article in Google Translate to get a French translation of it, I got this:
Dippold Pál
Les politiciens volcan
Position. Le non-sens n’a pas de limite inférieure. Il est vrai qu’il n’ya pas de sommet, car les milliards d’étoiles étaient jadis des créatures idiotes fuyant la Terre.
Dippold Pál – 2019.01.04. 04:12
Notre imagination place tout ce qui est inconfortable et mauvais dans sa vie sous votre réalité physique. Vers le bas. Dans les profondeurs de l’enfer.
Les actions des partis d’opposition hongrois présentés aujourd’hui dans les premiers jours du nouvel an ne peuvent pas vraiment être considérées comme ayant été commises par des tremblements de terre. Nous devons descendre. Lecce, le nouvel an, a été frappé par les partis de droite et de gauche. Leur sottise a été larguée dans des profondeurs telles que même le magma de la Terre du milieu leur a échappé: Etna et Krakatau ont éclaté.
Deuxièmement, un éclair a été appelé dans le château. Il y a rarement un mouvement plus amusant ici. Une douzaine de personnes ont souri devant le nouveau bureau de Viktor Orbán, leur chef, et la maîtresse de district a dit aux nombreux microphones qu’il y avait une foule derrière lui, et en fait, sur leur feuille de papier, ils en tenaient douze devant eux: “Viktor! Le château est pour tout le monde.” Elle avait également été suffisamment longtemps en proie à l’urination. Parce qu’être dans le château ne signifie rien de plus qu’uriner. Le président de la République va uriner, le Premier ministre va uriner, à peu près comme les travailleurs et les lecteurs de la Bibliothèque nationale Széchényi qui urinent dans l’ancien palais royal. Mais toutes les réceptionnistes et les serveuses urisent à l’hôtel Hilton, se rendent à pied au bastion des pêcheurs et urinent. Mais sur la place devant l’église Matthias, notre roi, le roi Stephen, est à son cheval. L’opposition de gauche a ensuite tenu une performance épouvantable à la Chambre hier, le plus absurde des plus absurdes. Une réunion extraordinaire a été convoquée, réitérant cinq revendications révolutionnaires de décembre en tant que chœur de perroquets, qu’ils ne pouvaient pas publier, par exemple à la télévision hongroise. Ce fut une heure mémorable lorsque des immigrants murmurant leur immunité sont entrés dans la télévision publique. Ses images inoubliables de l’histoire politique hongroise sont le ventre affaissé de Hadházy, la rébellion de Kunhalmi à la porte, Bangón et ses compagnons et le murmure de László Varju devant les caméras.
Comme les partis du gouvernement ont refusé d’aider les députés de gauche et de droite, la réunion d’hier, par exemple, est prévisible depuis le mois d’avril et n’a pas atteint le quorum. Le règlement de la Chambre donne l’occasion de ne parler que devant l’ordre du jour. Peter Jakab Jakab, avec ses yeux profonds, minuscules et très bêtes, a scandé qu’ils avaient assez d’esclaves. Tímea Szabó, qui tenait un appareil photo qu’il fabriquait lui-même à la main, a rapidement prêté serment, qui consistait à tout faire pour que le gouvernement actuel s’éloigne du pouvoir. Pendant des siècles, il a réitéré leurs revendications en décembre, à savoir l’abolition du travail des agents de police en heures supplémentaires, en raison notamment des mouvements de rue violents commis en décembre et des violences physiques exercées par des agents de police. Ensuite, le chancelier a juré en choeur. Plus tard, une partie de son corps, à savoir le parti socialiste et le parti Gyurcsány, a quitté la salle et les vingt-huit autres sur vingt-sept ont quitté la Chambre pour un quorum.
La stupidité incommensurable se déplace plus rapidement et plus profondément dans les profondeurs des profondeurs. On sait que les parties situées au-dessous du Vésuve et de Popocatépet ne sont pas très capables de le faire, il y a aussi un fort terrain grondant.
De plus en plus de gens en auront marre de cette société stupide.
END OF FRENCH TEXT
Now, I took the time to translate this into English as best I could, and now I have publicly invited comparison between the result of it and the English translation of the article that Robert Young did for me in exchange for a fee at my expense… but consider what is supposed to be reflected when I make this point: from the outset, I was prepared to have my own translation, for better or worse, purposely differ in places from what it might have been had I not known that the material I translated was in itself a translation to begin with. Even if I am no “perfect” professional translator, I can at least be committed to understanding when my clients are asking the wrong questions. And if by doing this I have constructed a bridge to any understanding of certain things about language for which no typical or routine approach would cut it, you can thank me for the initiative and effort (not to mention financial expense; and of course Robert Young’s role in this).
So here’s the result of me translating this French version into English. I explain certain decisions I made that would never have even struck me had I not known that the French material was a machine translation from Hungarian. I include comments at certain points, which are not part of the original material; these are designated by square brackets.
“Dippold Pál
Attention-grabbing politicians
[The French expression here is “Les politiciens volcan”. I knew better than to translate this literally as “volcano politicians” (well, I thought I did, to reference Robert Young’s work), but what about ones who “erupt” figuratively speaking? Or maybe “high-flying politicians”? Actually, given the content of the rest of this material (that’s situational awareness in translation for you), maybe the implication was supposed to be a derogatory one, like bloviating politicians; that was my best guess. Anyway, moving on.]
The position: nonsense can come from anywhere.
[The original French is “Le non-sens n’a pas de limite inférieure”. Why this rather than “nonsense has no upper limit”? In any case, as you can see, what I wrote here is no literal translation, and I think it works really, if you will just take some time to understand it.]
It is true that there is no summit – the thousands of stars were once silly creatures fleeing the Earth.
Dippold Pál – 2019.01.04. 04:12
Our imagination relegates everything uncomfortable and unpleasant in our lives beneath corporeal reality.
[I decided on “relegates” rather than “positions” (used as a transitive verb).]
Right down – down to the depths of Hell.
The actions of Hungary’s opposition parties that we see today in the first days of the new year can hardly be considered earth-shaking actions.
[“That we see today” rather than “presented today”. What else if not “presented by politicians”? – do you see how I bought into the concept of cynicism as far as the content of this newspaper article is concerned?]
We should dissociate ourselves from this sort of thing.
[In the French version, the main verb in this sentence is “descendre”, and the French verb “descendre” can mean “move away”, so to speak, when it’s not supposed to mean what it usually means i.e. “descend” (what else?).]
In the new year, Lecce had its share of moments on the part of both right-wing and left-wing parties.
[Surely “Lecce being hit” sounds (obviously) too literal? Not that I was certain that the author was actually talking about the Italian city (which he wasn’t, of course)…]
And their stupidity transpired at levels greater than even the depths of the magma at the centre of the Earth… and now, Etna and Krakatoa have erupted.
Next thing people knew, there were ripples throughout the sanctuary.
[Original French: “Deuxièmement, un éclair a été appelé dans le château”. “There was a flash throughout the castle?” I imagined that this was originally Hungarian idiomatic language (like “it’s raining cats and dogs” in English) literally translated (but was of course wrong). And that the “people” in question could have been either inside or outside the “castle”; or, if you like, the ivory tower – another theory. That was my reasoning. But, again, Robert Young’s translation shows all I knew.]
It is rare to see more entertaining movements. A dozen people smiled in front of the new office of Viktor Orbán, their leader, and the mistress of the district stated into the several microphones that there was a crowd behind him, and that, in fact, to hear them say it…
[I wrote “to hear them say it” at the end because “on their sheet of paper” (from French “sur leur feuille de papier”) sounded obviously too literal a translation; as far as I was concerned before I hired Robert, I guessed that it was most likely Hungarian idiomatic speech. Even though I don’t speak Hungarian, that was my best guess.]
…there were twelve people in front of them, saying, “Viktor! Everyone deserves a sanctuary!”
[Original French: “Viktor! Le château est pour tout le monde”. “The castle is for all the world”? Come on! Are we actually talking about a real castle, anyway? I didn’t think so. At the time I believed that it was much more likely to be just another figure of speech / idiom in Hungarian – a language which I don’t speak. It was the only thing my own reasoning allowed to me conceive of.
Now, before I continue, I kept encountering the French word for “urinate” in the material I translated into English myself… in any case, I didn’t take “urinate” in the literal sense here, so to speak; I just got to thinking that maybe “let yourself go” (possibly in a quasi-cathartic sense) was really the implication here… hence the double entendre you can make out in my work. Or maybe “let yourself go” is as good as “bloviate” here, in this case at least.]
They had also been waiting to urinate for long enough. Because to be in such a sanctuary means no more than… to let yourself go. The President of the Republic will let himself go, and the Prime Minister will let himself go, pretty much just like the workers and the academics at the Széchényi national library, when they bloviate at the old royal palace.
[“Academics” was translated from “lecteurs” (not “readers”)… I mean, (almost) anyone who’s an adult can read, right?]
But all the receptionists and waitresses who “let themselves go” at the Hilton hotel, they walk to the fishermans’ bastion and “bloviate”. But, on the square in front of the Matthias Church, our king, king Stephen, is up on his horse.
[I thought this at the time: maybe “is up on his horse” would read better as “on his high horse”? You know that expression, don’t you?]
The opposing left then delivered a terrible performance at the Chamber yesterday – it was the most absurd thing of all the most absurd things. An extraordinary meeting had been convened: with reiteration of five revolutionary complaints known from December from a chorus of parroters, saying things which could not be publicised e.g. on Hungarian television.
[You see that I didn’t translate “perroquets” literally as “parrots” but as “parroters”.]
It was quite a memorable hour when immigrants who murmured their immunity status earned their place on public television. The unforgettable images of this hour in Hungarian political history include the sagging belly of Hadházy, with the Kunhalmi rebellion never far away, and Bangón and co. and the murmuring of László Varju all caught on camera.
[The word “include” I found to be a more fitting verb than “to be” – Hadházy is a certain Hungarian person’s surname.]
Seeing as government parties refused to help representatives on both the left and the right, yesterday’s meeting – just one example – was something only predictable since April, and it didn’t reach the required quorum. The rules of the Chamber provide an opportunity to do no more than make speeches ahead of the existing agenda. Peter Jakab Jakab, with his deep, tiny, very stupid eyes, prattled on about having enough slaves. Tímea Szabó, who was carrying a camera which he made himself, quickly swore an oath – which involved doing everything to ensure that the current government would recede from power. For centuries, he reiterated their claims in December, these being the abolition of overtime work of police officers, this due in particular to the violent street movements which took place in December and the acts of physical violence perpetrated by police officers. Then the chancellor swore in chorus. Later, part of his body i.e. the socialist party and the Gyurcsány party left the room, and the twenty-seven others (out of twenty-eight) left the Chamber, for a quorum.
The immeasurable stupidity is spreading more quickly, and more deeply, in the depths of the depths.
[I decided that “spreading” was a better verb than “moving” in this context.]
We know that the areas below Vesuvius and Popocatepetl, for all the strong rumbling terrain, are not too capable of this sort of thing. Meanwhile, more and more people will get tired of this stupid society.”
END OF MY ENGLISH TRANSLATION
I admit that what I wrote sounds awfully clumsy and nonsensical in places – while I did my best, I fully expected it to be wrong to a certain extent, but certainly not without its correct (or at least passable) bits. Anyway, here is what Robert Young did for me:
Dippold Pál
Volcano politicians
Opinion. Human stupidity knows no depths. Nor heights for that matter, because then we might think that the stars were just idiots ascended there from Earth.
Our imagination places everything unpleasant and bad that happens in our lives beneath our physical reality. Down. To the depths of hell.
The actions of the opposition parties on the first day of the New Year cannot be said to have been presented by completely ignorant people. We must go deeper. The left-wing right-wingers and right-wing left-wingers have well and truly dived head first into the New Year. They’ve burrowed their stupidity to such depths that even the magma at the center of the earth fled from them erupting from Etna and Krakatau.
The lightning meeting was called for the 2nd of January in the Castle. Such ridiculous performances are hard to come by. A dozen people slunk around Viktor Orbán’s new offices, their leader, the female district mayor announced into many microphones how there were crowds standing behind her, and truly, twelve people held up their paper signs: “Viktor! The Castle belongs to everybody.” The woman also moaned at length about how they’d had enough of this “playing at being royalty” because obviously being in the castle can be nothing other than playing at being royalty. The President is playing at being royalty and the Prime Minister will be playing at being royalty, just like the workers and visitors of the National Széchényi Library are playing at royalty in the former Royal palace. Also the receptionists and waiters in the Hilton, and walking along the Halászbástya are also playing at Royalty. But most guilty of all is King Saint István astride his horse before the Matthew Church.
Then yesterday the left-right opposition gave their most incomprehensible performance in Parliament putting absurdist dramatists to shame. They called an emergency meeting for themselves and repeated, like some sort of parrot chorus, their five revolutionary demands from December, which they had not managed to promote in a manner becoming of them through national television. Those were memorable hours when the representatives broke into the national television building claiming immunity. The vision of Hadházy’s pendulous exposed belly, Kunhalmi’s struggle with a door, Mrs. Bagó and her companions prostrating themselves, and the worming about of László Varjú before the cameras are all unforgettable images in Hungarian political history.
Since the political parties were not willing to help the left-wing right-wingers and the right-wing left-wingers in their charade in parliament, the meeting yesterday – as could have been predicted since April – remained undecided. The House only allowed for brief speeches before the day’s motions. Péter Jakab of Jobbik, rolled his small and rather stupid deeply sunken eyes to aid him in shouting that “we have had enough of slaveowners”. Clutching a selfie stick Timea Szabó recorded their ridiculous oath, about how they will do everything to remove this government from power. She repeated their December demands a hundredth time, of which the abolishing of overtime for police is particularly interesting, due to the physical harm that came to dozens of police officers during the violent street marches organized by the opposition. Then the opposition rabble swore their oath in chorus. Later a faction of this swine herd, namely the socialists and the Gyurcsány party left the room, and twenty-seven of the remaining twenty eight left-right wingers voted that Parliament was abulic.
This immeasurable stupidity is heading deeper and deeper with increasing rapidity. Rumor has it that the areas beneath Vesuvius and Popocatepl cannot hold out much longer and the earth is growling beneath them.
Here, more and more people are fed up with this silly bunch of people.
END OF ROBERT YOUNG’S WORK
Before I go: I had thought of hiring someone else to translate this newspaper article from Hungarian into French, willing to invite comparison between that and what I got from Google Translate, and critique on it where possible, but that’s something else. Or maybe get two different people to write their own separate translations of the same material and critique on it as a professional translator? Or maybe that’s the role of language academics rather than translators – after all, is it really any surprise that, when I was doing my degree in French and German, all students were asked to provide their own translations of certain pieces, after which we discussed it in seminars?