MetaFilter posts tagged with translation

Enheduanna, the first poet we know by name

Kattullus — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:33:39 -0800

Enheduanna was a priestess and poet in the city of Ur in the 23rd century BC and supposedly the daughter of Sargon the Great of Akkad. She is the first author known by name. Here are a number of her poems in English translation, The Exaltation of Inana, Inana and Ebih, A Hymn to Inana, The Temple Hymns and A Balbale to Nanna. Here are two alternate translations of The Exaltation of Inana, one by James D. Pritchard and an English rendering of Dr. Annette Zgoll's German translation. If you want to learn more, go to The En-hedu-Ana Research Pages.

If rhythm be the food of love, play on

iamkimiam — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:12:44 -0800

The ASL Shakespeare Project brings us Twelfth Night, fully translated into American Sign Language (ASL) "American Sign Language (ASL) has often been called "kinetic sculpture," fusing movement and gesture to articulate language in space. With artists and scholars increasingly turning their attention to the representation and translation of gestures, this project joins two distinctly different cultures: the hearing world, with Shakespeare as one of its greatest poets, and the visual/gestural language of the Deaf." Peter Novak, project director for the ASL translation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, has devoted over a decade to this endeavor. Be sure to fully explore the main link to the ASL Shakespeare Project, where you can learn about some of the challenges* involved in an ASL translation, including homonyms, staging, songs and vernacular. Also, the Resources section contains a multitude of links, even lesson plans for students of ASL or Shakespeare, or both! Also, more from the Yale project page: Verse and Classifiers. *Click on Project, then Challenges (on the left sidebar)

Flight 93: "A Lot of Fun!" --Richard Roeper

not_on_display — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:55:43 -0800

[FlickrPoolFilter] Crappy Bootleg DVD Covers: Here, you will find Tom Cruise's hit movie, Pepe Likes Tacos. In this universe, Star Wars features Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dustin Hoffman stars in Lost in Translation; witches, pirates, and hobbits inhabit the same world. Titles are improved upon. Reviews are refreshingly frank (if they make any sense at all). Your DVD may also contain subtitles in French, Chinese, Spamsoc, or Martian. (Don't say there was no warning.) Remember, kids: Piracy Creates Jobs!

MétaFiltre!

Shepherd — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:21:54 -0800

The Canadian Government’s Translation Bureau recently made its French/English/Spanish technical terminology database, Termium, free to access after over a decade as a subscription-based service. While off-the-cuff translations are often available from free services like BabelFish, Termium focuses on technical terminology such as scientific, medical and legal terms. Of equal interest to the core service are other tools like The Canadian Style, the government’s official rules for how to write "Canadian" (an odd hybrid of British and American styles), HyperGrammar 2, a series of educational grammar modules developed for self-directed learning, and Word Tailoring, an attempt to create a translation database for idiomatic French words and expressions that don't necessarily offer a single literal translation. There are also a wealth of French-language tools for learning grammar, improving your writing style, and seeking alternate terms for common verbs and expressions. Also worthy of note is the always-free Grand Dictionnaire, the product of the Quebec government's Office de la langue française, which is far less robust than Termium but has a stronger focus on "proper" language for Quebec. And, if you're struggling to improve your French writing skills, Bon Patron is a (frequently slow-loading) Java-powered tool that will check your French spelling and grammar and offer correction suggestions in real time.

Brindin Press, poetry translations

Kattullus — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:38:18 -0800

Brindin Press has lots of poetry translations into English online, concentrating on French, German, Italian and Spanish, though more than 40 other languages are represented as well. A boatload of translators is represented, from those toiling in obscurity to big literary names (e.g. there are translations of Catullus poems by Ben Jonson, Jonathan Swift, Louis Zukofsky, Aubrey Beardsley and Thomas Hardy). There is also a section of quirky poems. Finally, here's a rendition of Goethe's Der Erlkönig that substitutes the elfish king with a dalek.

Translationparty to achieve a balance between English and Japanese.

31d1 — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:38:16 -0800

Me, why these people are weak and cats RIMASHITA scanner.

Google Translate Toolkit

stbalbach — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:22:39 -0800

Google Translate Toolkit is a new webapp from Google to help translate webpages. Video demonstration (1:30s). It has built-in support for Wikipedia and Jay Walsh thinks it "may change the way Wikipedia grows in other languages".¹

Tell me a secret.

hpliferaft — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:42:07 -0800

Published speculation first appeared in 1911, although others point to 1945 for its first modern phrasing. It originally looked like a flashlight on Star Trek. In Star Wars, it walked, talked, and was fluent "in over six million forms of communication." Many narratives have just abandoned the idea entirely.
Previous iterations have been quite limited in scope, but now it appears that the first learning, dynamic universal translator has finally arrived. And its futuristic aesthetic has been relegated to fiction in favor of a much more familiar object. Popularized artifacts have included a radio, "a metal tube" (or was it?), a disc, a stylish lapel pin (@ 1m14s), and, of course, a fish. Many other inventions persist. Oh, and when the universe was much smaller, it took a more prosaic form.

"Chinese poetry, as we know it today, is something invented by Ezra Pound." - T. S. Eliot

Kattullus — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:03:27 -0800

[Ezra Pound] worked on and for poetry as others might work on a major scientific discovery or a drawn-out military mission. Thus, as Sieburth reminds us in his introduction to The Pisan Cantos, when, on May 3, 1945, Pound was arrested at his home in the hills above Rapallo, he immediately put a small Chinese dictionary and a copy of the Confucian classics in his pocket. Working as he then was on his Confucian translations, he knew that, wherever the military police were taking him, he would need these books.

From Pound Ascendant by Marjorie Perloff. Ezra Pound's ability as a translator of Chinese poetry has long been disparaged by sinologists, such as George A. Kennedy in Fenollosa, Pound and the Chinese Character. Other academics have sought to defend him. Two examples are Zhaoming Qian's Ezra Pound's encounter with Wang Wei: toward the "ideogrammic method" of the Cantos and Stephen Tapscott's In Praise of Bad Translations: Ezra Pound and the Cultural Work of Translation (pdf). Eric Hayot draws the contours of this long-running debate and explores its significance in Critical Dreams: Orientalism, Modernism, and the Meaning of Pound's China. Pound's Cathay in full and a public domain audiobook version (iTunes link).

I'm a walnut, or a female AV star

kurumi — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:45:44 -0800

Nihongodict is an AJAXy online Japanese-English dictionary. The list of matches auto-updates as you type. You can enter (or paste in) romaji, Kanji or kana, and use character maps for hiragana and katakana. Results can be bookmarked. It's huge fun to play with, and a nice front end to EDICT, a freely usable dictionary (see license) with about 120,000 entries, largely maintained by one person (Jim Breen, Monash University). If you need more there are alternatives online; see Denshi Jisho, Yahoo! Japan, or you can roll your own.

Höpöhöpö Böks!

languagehat — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:40:57 -0800

Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl is an Icelandic poet. He translates Icelandic poetry into English (I particularly like his versions of Sigfús Daðason), and he has an interesting interview on Icelandic poetry ("Curiously enough, back in the days the nationalists would sometimes write in danish. And writing in a foreign language was more or less seen as the only alternative to literature being a mere hobby until Halldór Laxness came along"). But really this is an elaborate excuse to post a link to Höpöhöpö Böks: Köld öld Böks mjög örg, Ölböl örlög Böks! (Warning: My wife thought the linked video sounded like vomiting.) Via wood s lot. This one goes out to my man Kattullus; hope you can stick around! "The word Höpöhöpö (more commonly written höpö höpö) is finnish and means something between 'bla bla bla' and 'bullshit'. Written in one word it’s the longest word I know that only has ö’s."

The Gawain Project

Effigy2000 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:18:46 -0800

The Gawain Project is an ongoing translation of the late 14th century anonymous poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (originally written in Middle English) into Modern English, for the amusement of Arthurians and anyone who likes a good story. [via mefi projects]

Yes, they really are bird-people

cthuljew — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:39:31 -0800

Have you ever wondered how Samus got all her powers? I mean, really, how does a simple back-planet girl learn to use this mysterious Chozo technology?

Twenty-nine Tao te Chings.

Tufa — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:14:15 -0800

Twenty-nine Tao te Chings, a line at a time. For Sunday evening, a spare, meditative post. The Tao-te-Ching in 29 translations, line by line and side by side. I'll leave you to investigate the writings on your own; here alone are just the words to consider. Suggested: Mitchell. Previously: tao

Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

Fizz — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:07:49 -0800

Norman Thomas di Giovanni, translator for the 20th century Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges's has recently posted on his web-site, his translation of Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, one of his most well known and greatest short stories.

International literature websites

stbalbach — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:17:37 -0800

Fiction in Translation: How to Find the Year's Best. Some of the best sites/feeds to follow on translation reviews and news are: The Literary Salon, for the past month or so they have posting international awards from all over the world, fascinating. Three Percent, announced the long list of 25 best translated books of 2008. The Quarterly Conversation. Previously.

Paradise Lost in Translation

mdn — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:09:52 -0800

A new 'prose translation' of Milton's classic poem has been written by Prof Dennis Danielson in an effort to help make it available to a wider audience, if they find the original language too difficult. Apparently he wasn't the first to think of it, but considers his a translation rather than a retelling, and it is printed as a dual edition / parallel text. so, useful pedagogical tool, or evidence that we're forgetting how to read?

John Lee Hooker and the fine art of translation

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:11:11 -0800

You know, I want you to pick up on this. You know, these lyrics are something else. Just dig this. Yeah, whoever put those subtitles on that clip was... um, shall we say, not listening? Let's take a look at that one more time: "Now, I want you to pick up on this" = "Now I want you to pick upon this." "You know, these lyrics are something else." = "Your delirious is something else." "Just dig this." = "This did this."... Knuckleheads. Fortunately, some were listening a little more closely: the same introduction gets rather more accurate subtitles (albeit translated into French) in this clip. Well, whatever. Mainly it's just a great performance from a great bluesman. Here's more from the John Lee Hooker of the 1960s: The awesome, quiet power of Hobo Blues, plus Maudie and Tupelo. And a real treat: Hooker backed by the Muddy Waters band (!) at the Newport Jazz Festival of 1960. Just for reference (and a kick ass performance) here's the band with their usual leader at the same 1960 event in Newport, RI: Muddy Waters at Newport Festival 1960, Hoochie Koochie Man and Rollin' Stone.

Thus did the sons of the Heike vanish forever from the face of the earth.

ersatz — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:29:47 -0800

The Tale of the Heike (Heike Monogatari) is a medieval Japanese account of the rise and fall of the Taira clan and has inspired many other works of art. Click on the chapters and scroll down to see Heike illustrations (or start here), see more art or figures inspired by the Heike. Would you rather read? You can read two chapters of Helen Craig McCullough's translation or read a Michael Watson translation of the nô (Noh) play Kogô (illustration), inspired by the tale. (.doc file, link doesn't point directly to it.) The story was performed by biwa hôshi, "lute monks", and its most popular version was compiled by the blind* monk Kakuichi in 1371. The events recounted occur during the Genpei War (short version). The Genpei War took place in the 12th century between the Taira and Minamoto clans and was the end of the Heian era depicted in the famous Japanese text, The Tale of Genji. Heike means "House of Taira" and Genji "Minamoto clan". John Wallace (first link) isn't one for web design, but seems to have a penchant for collecting. *cf. Homer, Milton, Joyce, Borges.

Mother 3 Fan Translation

painquale — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:35:17 -0800

Mother 3 fan translation completed. Earthbound (known as Mother 2 in Japan) is one of the most highly regarded RPGs for the Super Nintendo. The game suffered disappointing sales in America, but has since gained the status of a cult classic. A sequel, Mother 3, was released for the Game Boy Advance, but it has never been officially translated into English. After a long development, a fan translation patch has just been released. Trailer. You might recognize some of the settings and characters from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Cattlesnake!

Translated for Courage

parmanparman — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:23:09 -0800

“I have seen many Anne Franks in Cambodia. ...Under Pol Pot, many children were separated from their families. They faced starvation and were sent to the front to fight and die,” she explains. “Like Anna, they never knew peace and the warmth of a home.” Translated by Sayana Ser with help from the Dutch embassy in Cambodia (Kampuchea, Khmer), The Diary of Anne Frank has now become one of the most popular and discussed books in this war-torn country.

Gilbert Alter-Gilbert

Wolfdog — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:54:01 -0800

An interview with translator (and critic and literary historian) Gilbert Alter-Gilbert.

Translation with a time limit

Knappster — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:00:42 -0800

Adventures in European subtitling. "With films like these I often feel like I am some sort of firefighter trying to salvage as much as I can from an immense burning mansion. You take out the expensive furniture and artwork and all the people and you leave behind the wallpaper, the rugs, the goldfish tank and the occasional poodle. Sorry, folks, no time." via

Interpreting Due Process

Forktine — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:30:51 -0800

An Interpreter Speaking Up for Migrants: Erik Camayd-Freixas is a professor and a legal translator who assisted in the fast-track trial and sentencing of the over 400 illegal immigrant workers in Postville, Iowa, who were arrested on criminal charges involving identity theft rather than the usual deportation proceedings. Unusually for a court interpreter, who maintain a strict code of impartiality and neutrality, Camayd-Freixas spoke out, writing "that the immigrant defendants whose words he translated, most of them villagers from Guatemala, did not fully understand the criminal charges they were facing or the rights most of them had waived." The Times article has a video interview with Camayd-Freixas. His 14-page essay can be read here (pdf). It is vividly-written: He stared for a while at the signature page pretending to read it, although I knew he was actually praying for guidance and protection. Before he signed with a scribble, he said: “God knows you are just doing your job to support your families, and that job is to keep me from supporting mine.” There was my conflict of interest, well put by a weeping, illiterate man. Adding an additional layer of ethical complication is that many of the workers were Mayan Indians from Guatamala -- the people who were victims of a massive genocide in the 1980s.

In the bowels of the beast

klangklangston — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:39:02 -0800

Doug Skinner translates Paul Vibert's House of Flesh and Bone, a short story about living inside large animals. Part 2. Part 3. via