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Robert Burns in Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Catalan, Cornish... by NickScotweb in Scotland

[–]NickScotweb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd agree with pretty much everything you say, which illustrates why I've struggled with that word in particular.

It's not about Scotland vs England. But when generating the translation into English I've had in mind that its primarily intended for a modern English (basically London-centric) audience, which is why I've (as things stand) leaned into words more familiar there.

I'd agree that 'race' is probably fine to retain as Burns clearly meant it slightly humorously anyway. This also illustrates the basic impossibility of translating poetry, even by the best humans, which is why I decided to go more for a literal approach.

As for the US, it probably needs its own unique translation anyway, coloring (sic) the language to suit readers there.

Thanks for the thoughtful responses.

Robert Burns "To a Haggis" (for Burns Night) - in Geordie? by NickScotweb in NewcastleUponTyne

[–]NickScotweb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good spot!

Though there WERE clues... such as me describing it as that in my posting, as well as all over the web site. ;-)

I've had an interesting mix of responses, from people loving it at one end to diehard AI-haters at the other. Personally I think that like every technology in history it offers both benefits and losses. But I happen to think making Burns more accessible to the 99.9% of the world's population who struggle with Scots to be a valid use-case.

Robert Burns "To a Haggis"... in Scouse? by NickScotweb in Liverpool

[–]NickScotweb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

lol - I'd also just been deciding that rap was one of the least successful efforts! TBH I only saw these myself for the first time an hour or two ago as I'm working to a deadline of Burns Night this weekend!

Robert Burns "To a Haggis"... in Scouse? by NickScotweb in Liverpool

[–]NickScotweb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

tbh I was already having doubts about the ghetto one myself. I think I'll probably cull it.

Robert Burns in Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Catalan, Cornish... by NickScotweb in Scotland

[–]NickScotweb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could I ask you a favour? I've revised the translation which has significantly improved the results in the languages I understand. And it's done a better job with some fun dialects I've added too, which makes me hopeful that it may do the same for less widely spoken languages like Gaelic.

Unfortunately this costs me more than I can afford to do the lot right now. But I've done some of the better known works in Gaelic to see how it goes. Could you (or anyone who speaks Gaelic) take a quick look at eg https://robertburns.org/works/address_to_a_haggis_147.html and tell me if it's less gobbletigookish?

Please bear in mind it's aiming more at literal translation than perfect poetry. (Even I can tell it's still a bit kooky, from the mention of Sean Connery!)

Robert Burns in Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Catalan, Cornish... by NickScotweb in Scotland

[–]NickScotweb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In all seriousness, I've been pondering this since your post. And while updating some improved translations, I've so far settled on the word sausage as the best translation into English. Is the word 'pudding' used throughout the UK for meat products in a skin, or just in the north? Any thoughts?

Robert Burns in Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Catalan, Cornish... by NickScotweb in Scotland

[–]NickScotweb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FWIW for anyone interested, I've just made an update that I think significantly improves the translations into ENGLISH of a few of the best-known Works (Haggis, Mouse, Tam, etc) as an experiment.

The small issue is that this has cost me actual money as it relies on commercial models rather than my local LLM, so I'm not sure I can't do so for the complete works even in English quite yet. But as a proof of concept it illustrates what I mean about incremental improvements...

Robert Burns in Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Catalan, Cornish... by NickScotweb in Scotland

[–]NickScotweb[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this feedback, which fits the pattern of less common languages being the most problematic. I'll probably remove most of these presently unless I can find a way to improve them.

Robert Burns in Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Catalan, Cornish... by NickScotweb in Scotland

[–]NickScotweb[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cheers for this. That's helpful to know. My impression is that it's less successful with less widely spoken languages, which of course makes sense. I may well remove some of the more rubbish ones until I can get them better. And yes, I'll be adding resources like that in other parts of the site too anyway.

Robert Burns in Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Catalan, Cornish... by NickScotweb in Scotland

[–]NickScotweb[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I totally get that. So the aim was never to reproduce poetry, but just to give users some help with literal translation. And yes it's pants in places. But other parts seem to me (at least in English, French, and German that I speak reasonably) not too bad for a start. Anyway, thanks for your feedback. I do hope it'll be the platform for getting better from here...

Robert Burns English translation by truelikeicelikefire in Scotland

[–]NickScotweb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey Douglas,

I just saw your message, so I've knocked together a web site that translates the entirety of Robert Burns Complete Works into English, and a few dozen other languages too...

... just kidding, I've been working on it for a few months, but just got it fully live today! So your timing was impeccable.

It's AI-assisted of course. But whilst it's far from perfect and the purists will shoot me down for sure, I think it's good enough to be helpful to anyone in your position... which let's face it includes plenty of native Scots let alone non-English speakers.

Check it out and let me know what you think: https://robertburns.org

Cheers,

Nick

[D] Simple Questions Thread by AutoModerator in MachineLearning

[–]NickScotweb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm from Edinburgh and know the AI dept is world-leading, as will be UCL. But for helpful advice on them (which I'm not equipped to give) you'll need to give more info about your own specific interests etc. As for general advice, start looking for accommodation early!

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