Lost in Translation

When I was in high school Year 9 or 10? (1969? 1970?) I spent most of my time in orientation doing multitudes of test a few of them being in interests and aptitudes.  

The gist of it was brain yes manual no.

Mind you back then I hardly spoke a word of English and though I was decent in French and STILL can spell better than most of today's 'kids" I don't recall language coming on the chart, more like science and maths.
But if I was to do it all over again I wonder how high translation work would show?

I did some translation work way back then in the mid eighties and I was quite satisfied of what I considered very hard work. It was an industrial catalogues of automotive radiators and the technical and mechanical terms alone were quite a challenge.

I was in Toronto back then on my first office job ever and I remember calling the Office de la langue française in Quebec quite often and they were extremely helpful.

Way back then there was go Google or Google Translation and no Bing Translation either. All I had wat the Robert's French-English dictionary IIRC.

Anyway back to today I find joy in trying to find an exact word for translation.  All the fancy nuances are fascinating. AI is also fascinating as it is such a harsh subject. 

Today I was working on the word TAPAGEUR which I heard in Lakmé's Flower duet and it reminded me also of a poem by Emile Nelligan we were made to memorise back in primary school.

LAKME(gaiement)Viens, Mallika, les lianes en fleursJettent déjà leur ombreSur le ruisseau sacré qui coule, calme et sombre,Eveillé par le chant des oiseaux tapageurs!

translated here as

LAKME(Cheerful)Come, Mallika, the vines in bloomAlready cast their shadowOn the sacred stream flowing, calm and dark,Awakened by the song of the boisterous birds!un vacarme un tapage as in tapping your feet

Bing translates tapageur as noisy which is just too bland Bruilliant is noisy from Bruit/Noise
Google is a little better and might be my first choice even if I do like boisterous. It translate tapageur as rowdy.

I somehow associate tapageurs to children maybe because of Nelligan

Par les hivers anciens, quand nous portions la robe,Tout petits, frais, rosés, tapageurs et joufflus,Avec nos grands albums, hélas ! Que l’on n’a plus,

If you want the meaning of "Lost in Translation" now just one word will do it:

POETRY

Now if I think of children I wonder if rowdy or boisterous fits better?
I am having a penchant for rowdy.

Back in my old days of Bible studies and trying to get to the bottom of Greek and Hebrew there was two schools in bible translations:

1. Literally
2. Literary

or as I put it

1. Straight to it
2, Fancy pantsy artsy

As you can tell I have a penchant (here is that French word again) for
Literary / Straight to it style even though it is not always pretty.


I could go on on the subject forever but let me terminate this with one of my favourite case. Colloquial language is always the hardest.

the common sailor expression

I don't give a flying fuck :)

way back then Bing and Google were just HILARIOUS about it 
translating it as
Je ne donne pas une baise volante
but the AI has improved a lot well at least for Bing
(Bing is getting frightingly close to the singularity here and 
Cyberdyne Systems and Skynet are just around the corner)
Bing: Je n’en ai rien à foutre bang on the money 

I wonder how they would translate this in French Canadian now?

My interpretation could be
Je m'en contrecalisse! :P

Google is better on this one but they messed up a slightly different version last week
je m'en fous

So watch out people the Terminator is at your door and translator's job will be a thing of the past soon.

 il fut un temps ou google et bing traduisait ceci parNe pas donner une baise volante, 　Il semble que le logiciel évolueGoogle: Je ne donnerai pas un putain de putain de vol demainBing: Ne s’en foutrea pas demain.Traduit en quebecois par moi:I don't give a flying fuckJ'm'en calisse tu moé?

That was written on the 13th of June 5 days ago and it since that since then Google has corrected its trajectory. Talk about AI. Toodoodoodoo.

P.S. Google still has work to do though :)
do i look like i give a fuck DILLIGAF becomes

Ai-je l'air de donner une baise

Bing is worst:

dois-je ressembler à je donne une baise

Ok I would have lasted til retirement age at 65 as a translator then :)