 Your new post is loading...
|
Scooped by
Charles Tiayon
August 2, 2024 9:21 PM
|
"They Translated the Books of Others. Now They’re Writing Their Own. Recognized literary translators — Jennifer Croft, Anton Hur, Bruna Dantas Lobato among them — are making the jump to publishing rosters as authors themselves. From left to right, Jennifer Croft, Bruna Dantas Lobato and Anton Hur. A growing cohort of translators — among them, Jennifer Croft, Bruna Dantas Lobato and Anton Hur — are writing their own novels.Credit...From left: Nathan Jeffers; Ashley Pieper; via Anton Hur By Celia McGee July 31, 2024 By many measures, Bruna Dantas Lobato is quite the literary star. At 33, the Brazilian American has published a cascade of translations, both fiction and nonfiction, from Portuguese to English, and last year won the National Book Award for translated literature. But one story, she said, was missing from her bibliography: her own. With her debut novel, “Blue Light Hours,” centered on a Brazilian student who sees her close relationship with her mother reduced to a computer screen when she moves to New England for college, she is finally closing that gap. (The book is due out in October, from Grove Atlantic.) “I wanted to write the kind of novel I hadn’t found yet,” she said. Knowing two languages, she added, allowed her to “play with different styles and genres to tell that story.” She isn’t alone. A growing cohort of translators is expanding the field and making the leap to publishing as authors themselves: Jennifer Croft, best known for translating the Nobel Prize-winning Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk, published “The Extinction of Irena Rey” in March; “Short War,” by the translator Lily Meyer, followed in April; and “Toward Eternity,” by the Seoul-based translator Anton Hur, came out earlier this month. Image The book cover for “The Extinction of Irena Rey,” by Jennifer Croft, shows an illustration of a forest with blue trees, dense underbrush and wild mushrooms. The title is light green and the author’s name is pink. None see their translation work as divorced from their creative practice, but as seminal to shaping their voices as writers. K.E. Semmel, a translator from Danish whose debut novel, “The Book of Losman,” is forthcoming in October, argued in an essay in The Millions that working as a translator was an important training ground for his writing. “It’s part of a process of cross-pollination,” Croft said. “It’s perfectly normal for translators to hone their craft by writing books, and I’m happy that translators are also getting to tell their own stories.” The reverse has certainly been true: Authors as varied as Cicero, Tobias Smollett and Gustave Flaubert also rose to the challenge of translation work, as did Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino. Haruki Murakami has said that translating “The Great Gatsby” into Japanese was a primary influence on his writing, and one rumor — among many — pins Elena Ferrante’s true identity on the translator Anita Raja. “When you’re working with so many different voices and styles, eventually you find yourself asking: ‘What is my voice?’” said Saskia Vogel, a Berlin-based translator whose debut novel, “Permission,” was published in 2019. Editors’ Picks From Harlem to Selma to Paris, James Baldwin’s Life in Pictures For Epidemics to Cross Oceans, Viruses on Ships Had to Beat the Odds Restaurant Review: This Outstanding Yemeni Kitchen Began With an Escape From War Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT In 2016, the translator Idra Novey answered that question with her fiction debut “Ways to Disappear,” a novel about a translator, and with two more novels since. The veteran translator Peter Constantine made his contribution with “The Purchased Bride,” published last year. Inspired by his grandmother’s life, the book tells the story of a young woman fleeing the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. And Jeremy Tiang, a prolific translator from the Chinese and a playwright, published the short collection “It Never Rains on National Day” in 2015 and the novel “State of Emergency” in 2018. Image The book cover for “Toward Eternity” by Anton Hur, shows an illustration of a moon surrounded by various, multicolored flowers and plants. The title and author’s name is white. A particularly transformative boost to prominence for translators occurred in 2021, when Croft helped lead a successful campaign to have translators’ names — long buried on the copyright pages inside translated books — featured on the covers. The attendant name recognition may have further facilitated segues to publishing their own writing. Croft’s views on translation could be a manifesto for the persistent thrum of firsthand experience underlying her copiously researched, densely plotted novel about the disappearance of a world-famous Polish novelist and the gradual unraveling of a tight-knit group of translators as they try to find her. Advertisement “I feel pretty strongly,” she said, “that to successfully translate a language you have to have lived in the country where that language is from.” Croft began to wade into language study with high school Russian courses. By age 15, she had run through the available offerings and enrolled in college, eventually branching out to Ukrainian, then Polish. She has lived in Poland and Argentina, translated a range of Spanish-language authors, and originally wrote “Homesick,” an autobiographical novella published in 2019, in Spanish. Among the many layers to her novel — meta, mythic, mystical and Colonel-Mustard-in-the-Parlor — is the palpable presence of Bialowieza, one of the last primeval forests in Europe, bordered on one side by a volatile Belarus and on others by ongoing threats to an ancient ecosystem, its mutability an ongoing allegory for translation. Image The book cover for “Short War,” by Lily Meyer, shows a red illustration of a map against a black cover. The title and author’s name is green. Croft, Hur, Dantas Lobato, and Meyer all came of literary age during the sociopolitical shifts still informing the American translation landscape after 9/11, pledging by dint of their career choices a certain allegiance to cross-national dialogue and understanding. “Translation,” Hur said, “asks what the role of literature is in society and culture.” An opponent of the conservative South Korean government, Hur is a founding member of the translation collective Smoking Tigers, which champions innovative Korean literature, and a vocal critic of the longstanding primacy of Eurocentric translated literature. Those convictions are full-bore in “Toward Eternity.” A love story spanning multiple millenniums, life-forms and variations on immortality, the book posits Victorian poetry as a weapon of empire, insists on nature’s resilience in the face of genocide and manipulates prose into something like a new language. Because Hur, who is gay, was forced to hide his sexuality growing up, “code switching was always there,” he said. Though now embarked on two new novels, he stresses translation’s priority for him. “I still consider myself a translator first and foremost,” he said. “It’s much cooler than being a writer. It’s such a complicated, complex skill.” Like translation, “Toward Eternity” recognizes both the building and burning of bridges. One reason Hur said he set the novel partly in a post-apartheid South Africa is the symbolic significance it holds for a bifurcated Korean Peninsula. “We’re a country that has remained broken, divided into North and South,” he said. “Though South Africa isn’t perfect, it holds a kind of utopian quality for us.” Meyer’s “Short War” explores a different dystopia, rifling back five decades to the United States’ complicity in ushering in the brutal rule of Chile’s dictator Augusto Pinochet. Before she traveled there as a high school exchange student in 2008, she said, “I knew that the Pinochet regime had lasted 17 years, but not that the United States had helped make it possible. I was so mortified and angry.” Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Her notion for “Short War” grew out of her determination to turn those revelations into a novel, and, in the course of delving into her research in Spanish, she became a translator. “Translation makes a lot of sense for me as a writer,” she said. “The skills are the same. You have to care about every sentence, you have to be able to play with words, you have to understand your context — except that translation is more collaborative.” Image The book cover for “Blue Light Hours,” by Bruna Dantas Lobato, shows a blue-and-white illustration of a woman’s outline in a window. The title and author’s name is white. Dantas Lobato’s trajectory was Meyer’s in reverse. Her proficiency in Portuguese and English helped her win a scholarship to Phillips Exeter Academy, then Bennington College, followed by an M.F.A. in creative writing at N.Y.U. “Being bilingual has made me a writer,” she said. “I see stories in between the lines of my life.” As she wrote her novel, Dantas Lobato said, she grappled with what she realized was her earliest role as a translator. “My parents were divorced,” she explained, “and I had to translate between them.” As the unnamed protagonist of “Blue Light Hours” struggles to translate her old self into someone new, in a new country and a new language, she watches the way memories continue to grip her mother as tightly as the telenovela tragedies flickering in the apartment behind her. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT The translator Samantha Schnee pointed out that Dantas Lobato’s first published translation was with Words Without Borders, the digital magazine Schnee founded in 2003 that has since featured the collaborative work of 4,600 writers and translators in 140 languages. From her vantage point, Schnee said, the pivot to fiction by translators like Dantas Lobato, Croft, Hur and Meyer “is just the tip of the iceberg as translators feel more and more empowered.” Recently, Schnee said, she came across a box containing pages of a novella she wrote to fulfill her M.F.A. in creative writing at The New School two decades ago. She plans to expand it into a novel." #metaglossia_mundus: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/31/books/translators-debut-novels.html
Researchers across Africa, Asia and the Middle East are building their own language models designed for local tongues, cultural nuance and digital independence
"In a high-stakes artificial intelligence race between the United States and China, an equally transformative movement is taking shape elsewhere. From Cape Town to Bangalore, from Cairo to Riyadh, researchers, engineers and public institutions are building homegrown AI systems, models that speak not just in local languages, but with regional insight and cultural depth.
The dominant narrative in AI, particularly since the early 2020s, has focused on a handful of US-based companies like OpenAI with GPT, Google with Gemini, Meta’s LLaMa, Anthropic’s Claude. They vie to build ever larger and more capable models. Earlier in 2025, China’s DeepSeek, a Hangzhou-based startup, added a new twist by releasing large language models (LLMs) that rival their American counterparts, with a smaller computational demand. But increasingly, researchers across the Global South are challenging the notion that technological leadership in AI is the exclusive domain of these two superpowers.
Instead, scientists and institutions in countries like India, South Africa, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are rethinking the very premise of generative AI. Their focus is not on scaling up, but on scaling right, building models that work for local users, in their languages, and within their social and economic realities.
“How do we make sure that the entire planet benefits from AI?” asks Benjamin Rosman, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and a lead developer of InkubaLM, a generative model trained on five African languages. “I want more and more voices to be in the conversation”.
Beyond English, beyond Silicon Valley
Large language models work by training on massive troves of online text. While the latest versions of GPT, Gemini or LLaMa boast multilingual capabilities, the overwhelming presence of English-language material and Western cultural contexts in these datasets skews their outputs. For speakers of Hindi, Arabic, Swahili, Xhosa and countless other languages, that means AI systems may not only stumble over grammar and syntax, they can also miss the point entirely.
“In Indian languages, large models trained on English data just don’t perform well,” says Janki Nawale, a linguist at AI4Bharat, a lab at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. “There are cultural nuances, dialectal variations, and even non-standard scripts that make translation and understanding difficult.” Nawale’s team builds supervised datasets and evaluation benchmarks for what specialists call “low resource” languages, those that lack robust digital corpora for machine learning.
It’s not just a question of grammar or vocabulary. “The meaning often lies in the implication,” says Vukosi Marivate, a professor of computer science at the University of Pretoria, in South Africa. “In isiXhosa, the words are one thing but what’s being implied is what really matters.” Marivate co-leads Masakhane NLP, a pan-African collective of AI researchers that recently developed AFROBENCH, a rigorous benchmark for evaluating how well large language models perform on 64 African languages across 15 tasks. The results, published in a preprint in March, revealed major gaps in performance between English and nearly all African languages, especially with open-source models.
Similar concerns arise in the Arabic-speaking world. “If English dominates the training process, the answers will be filtered through a Western lens rather than an Arab one,” says Mekki Habib, a robotics professor at the American University in Cairo. A 2024 preprint from the Tunisian AI firm Clusterlab finds that many multilingual models fail to capture Arabic’s syntactic complexity or cultural frames of reference, particularly in dialect-rich contexts.
Governments step in
For many countries in the Global South, the stakes are geopolitical as well as linguistic. Dependence on Western or Chinese AI infrastructure could mean diminished sovereignty over information, technology, and even national narratives. In response, governments are pouring resources into creating their own models.
Saudi Arabia’s national AI authority, SDAIA, has built ‘ALLaM,’ an Arabic-first model based on Meta’s LLaMa-2, enriched with more than 540 billion Arabic tokens. The United Arab Emirates has backed several initiatives, including ‘Jais,’ an open-source Arabic-English model built by MBZUAI in collaboration with US chipmaker Cerebras Systems and the Abu Dhabi firm Inception. Another UAE-backed project, Noor, focuses on educational and Islamic applications.
In Qatar, researchers at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and the Qatar Computing Research Institute, have developed the Fanar platform and its LLMs Fanar Star and Fanar Prime. Trained on a trillion tokens of Arabic, English, and code, Fanar’s tokenization approach is specifically engineered to reflect Arabic’s rich morphology and syntax.
India has emerged as a major hub for AI localization. In 2024, the government launched BharatGen, a public-private initiative funded with 235 crore (€26 million) initiative aimed at building foundation models attuned to India’s vast linguistic and cultural diversity. The project is led by the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and also involves its sister organizations in Hyderabad, Mandi, Kanpur, Indore, and Madras. The programme’s first product, e-vikrAI, can generate product descriptions and pricing suggestions from images in various Indic languages. Startups like Ola-backed Krutrim and CoRover’s BharatGPT have jumped in, while Google’s Indian lab unveiled MuRIL, a language model trained exclusively on Indian languages. The Indian governments’ AI Mission has received more than180 proposals from local researchers and startups to build national-scale AI infrastructure and large language models, and the Bengaluru-based company, AI Sarvam, has been selected to build India’s first ‘sovereign’ LLM, expected to be fluent in various Indian languages.
In Africa, much of the energy comes from the ground up. Masakhane NLP and Deep Learning Indaba, a pan-African academic movement, have created a decentralized research culture across the continent. One notable offshoot, Johannesburg-based Lelapa AI, launched InkubaLM in September 2024. It’s a ‘small language model’ (SLM) focused on five African languages with broad reach: Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, isiZulu and isiXhosa.
“With only 0.4 billion parameters, it performs comparably to much larger models,” says Rosman. The model’s compact size and efficiency are designed to meet Africa’s infrastructure constraints while serving real-world applications. Another African model is UlizaLlama, a 7-billion parameter model developed by the Kenyan foundation Jacaranda Health, to support new and expectant mothers with AI-driven support in Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Xhosa, and Zulu.
India’s research scene is similarly vibrant. The AI4Bharat laboratory at IIT Madras has just released IndicTrans2, that supports translation across all 22 scheduled Indian languages. Sarvam AI, another startup, released its first LLM last year to support 10 major Indian languages. And KissanAI, co-founded by Pratik Desai, develops generative AI tools to deliver agricultural advice to farmers in their native languages.
The data dilemma
Yet building LLMs for underrepresented languages poses enormous challenges. Chief among them is data scarcity. “Even Hindi datasets are tiny compared to English,” says Tapas Kumar Mishra, a professor at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela in eastern India. “So, training models from scratch is unlikely to match English-based models in performance.”
Rosman agrees. “The big-data paradigm doesn’t work for African languages. We simply don’t have the volume.” His team is pioneering alternative approaches like the Esethu Framework, a protocol for ethically collecting speech datasets from native speakers and redistributing revenue back to further development of AI tools for under-resourced languages. The project’s pilot used read speech from isiXhosa speakers, complete with metadata, to build voice-based applications.
In Arab nations, similar work is underway. Clusterlab’s 101 Billion Arabic Words Dataset is the largest of its kind, meticulously extracted and cleaned from the web to support Arabic-first model training.
The cost of staying local
But for all the innovation, practical obstacles remain. “The return on investment is low,” says KissanAI’s Desai. “The market for regional language models is big, but those with purchasing power still work in English.” And while Western tech companies attract the best minds globally, including many Indian and African scientists, researchers at home often face limited funding, patchy computing infrastructure, and unclear legal frameworks around data and privacy.
“There’s still a lack of sustainable funding, a shortage of specialists, and insufficient integration with educational or public systems,” warns Habib, the Cairo-based professor. “All of this has to change.”
A different vision for AI
Despite the hurdles, what’s emerging is a distinct vision for AI in the Global South – one that favours practical impact over prestige, and community ownership over corporate secrecy.
“There’s more emphasis here on solving real problems for real people,” says Nawale of AI4Bharat. Rather than chasing benchmark scores, researchers are aiming for relevance: tools for farmers, students, and small business owners.
And openness matters. “Some companies claim to be open-source, but they only release the model weights, not the data,” Marivate says. “With InkubaLM, we release both. We want others to build on what we’ve done, to do it better.”
In a global contest often measured in teraflops and tokens, these efforts may seem modest. But for the billions who speak the world’s less-resourced languages, they represent a future in which AI doesn’t just speak to them, but with them."
Sibusiso Biyela, Amr Rageh and Shakoor Rather
20 May 2025
https://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2025.65
#metaglossia_mundus
"Local languages are becoming an important tool of identity and cultural assertion due to their superior literary expressions.
As India takes confident strides, it is shedding the mantle of English language supremacy. Indian writers want the world to engage in conversations with them - in their native languages. Local languages are becoming an important tool of identity and cultural assertion due to their superior literary expressions. This shift in perspective has not come under a government scheme. Publishing industry is witnessing a churning.Indian spices
Though, Indian bibliophiles have enjoyed a globalised world view. Russian, French, German, Latin American or Japanese - the best literature of these languages has been made available in English and Hindi translations for decades.
But this has been a one-way traffic. While Indians were reading world literature; the language-literature of India was not made available to the global audience. Thereby limiting the reach of writers writing in 24 Indian languages.
While Indian writers, writing in English — Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie et. al. became global celebrities; this was not so for other Indian languages. Few writers in Malayalam, Tamil, Marathi, Assamese etc. produced world-class literature yet their reach remained limited to the region.
Indian spices
Not only great works of literature written in regional languages of India were not getting translated into foreign languages; almost no translation activity was taking place among the 24 literary languages recognised by Sahitya Akademi of India. This made the writers feel isolated. Even when they did get translated, the translations remained obscure, locked in some government library. Readers could not access them.
Changing the script
This scenario is changing. When Penguin India, the largest English publishing house in India, publishes an English international award-winning book; it simultaneously gets it published in Hindi translation. Almost all popular authors of English want their books to be available in Hindi. Hindi readership is, by some rough estimates, five to ten times greater than English.
"Japanese yakuza novel wins UK award for crime fiction in translation
A novel depicting yakuza gangster life by a Japanese author has won a prestigious British award for crime fiction.
The Crime Writers' Association awarded its 2025 Dagger prize for crime fiction in translation to Otani Akira's "The Night of Baba Yaga" in London on Thursday. The novel was translated by Sam Bett.
Created in 1955, the Daggers are considered one of the world's most prestigious awards for crime and thriller writing along with the Edgar Awards of the United States.
The story is about the bond between a woman known for her fighting prowess and the only daughter of the head of a Japanese yakuza group. The woman is forced to become the daughter's bodyguard.
It depicts how the two women come to trust each other against the backdrop of the criminal underworld.
The fast-paced novel makes use of graphically violent scenes and language to depict the two women in pursuit of their hopes for their lives.
The book was first published in Japan in 2020. Translated versions later hit the British, US, and South Korean markets. Some reviews described the novel as one that empowers women in a sophisticated way.
Otani, 44, is from Tokyo and was originally a scenario writer for video games. She has written novels and essays on a variety of themes, including love and families.
The Daggers' translated novel category was created in 2006. Japanese author Yuzuki Asako's Butter was also shortlisted for this year's prize.
Otani is the first Japanese Dagger winner and the second Asian, following South Korean writer Yun Ko-eun who won in 2021."
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20250704_05/
#metaglossia_mundus "Japanese yakuza novel wins UK award for crime fiction in translation
A novel depicting yakuza gangster life by a Japanese author has won a prestigious British award for crime fiction.
The Crime Writers' Association awarded its 2025 Dagger prize for crime fiction in translation to Otani Akira's "The Night of Baba Yaga" in London on Thursday. The novel was translated by Sam Bett.
Created in 1955, the Daggers are considered one of the world's most prestigious awards for crime and thriller writing along with the Edgar Awards of the United States.
The story is about the bond between a woman known for her fighting prowess and the only daughter of the head of a Japanese yakuza group. The woman is forced to become the daughter's bodyguard.
It depicts how the two women come to trust each other against the backdrop of the criminal underworld.
The fast-paced novel makes use of graphically violent scenes and language to depict the two women in pursuit of their hopes for their lives.
The book was first published in Japan in 2020. Translated versions later hit the British, US, and South Korean markets. Some reviews described the novel as one that empowers women in a sophisticated way.
Otani, 44, is from Tokyo and was originally a scenario writer for video games. She has written novels and essays on a variety of themes, including love and families.
The Daggers' translated novel category was created in 2006. Japanese author Yuzuki Asako's Butter was also shortlisted for this year's prize.
Otani is the first Japanese Dagger winner and the second Asian, following South Korean writer Yun Ko-eun who won in 2021."
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20250704_05/
#metaglossia_mundus
Incomes and literacy rates are growing nationwide; contributing to publishing in local languages with a rigour not known before. An estimate puts roughly 19,000 active publishers in India, mostly in Hindi and other regional languages like, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam, which have had a long tradition of libraries and reading clubs. The corporate publishing houses are tapping these small publishers to capitalise on their writing traditions.
International Booker and translation
Recognition to the quotidian; the voices emanating from narrow, smaller spaces has come, by the fillip given to translation as a literary activity. The Booker International Prize 2022, received by Hindi novelist Geetanjali Shree for Ret Samadhi, translated by Daisy Rockwell and for 2024 by Banu Mushtaq’s, Heart Lamp translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, has put the status of translator at par with the author. The Booker Prize money of 50,000 pounds is divided equally between the author and the translator to acknowledge the significant contribution of translators in bringing literary works to a wider audience.
“The coming decade of world literature belongs to translators. They are getting money and recognition at par with the authors. Most literary awards are going to be based on translations which used to be a missionary work; in India translators’ names did not appear on the cover page. This is changing—the translator shares the same space as the author. The world is going to be unified by translators; they have more power now,” comments Madhav Kaushik, President, Sahitya Kala Akademi.
Indian spices
Almost all major universities are teaching comparative literature and translation, which is no more limited to the linguistics department; where the linguists debated over the nomenclature—to call it trans-literation or trans- creation. Foreign embassies are engaging translators to introduce their literature to India and vice versa.
Translation has arrived as a well-paid, well-recognised creative art.
Self- translation
While the name and money of the Booker Prize is shared with the translator, India’s only Nobel Laureate in Literature, Rabindranath Tagore, preferred to translate his own poems from original Bengali into English. His collection of poetry Geetanjali, for which he was granted the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1913, Tagore did not want to rely on others’ interpretations of his poems. He was not always satisfied with the translations done by others —as he wanted to ensure his voice and finer nuances were preserved in the English version. Though, several English writers pointed at the flaws in his translations for their Indianness—Tagore stuck to his conviction—to his uniqueness. Indian spices
Tagore was not alone. Many great authors and poets translated their own works. Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov, known for his complex and intricate characters, translated his own works from Russian into English. So did Samuel Beckett, a French Nobel Laureate, Ngugi wa Thiong'o and others. Despite the best efforts of the translator, at times the author feels, no one else can get the soul of his/her writing. Especially in the case of poetry.
In the market-driven economy of demand and supply, nuances are replaced by speed. Now, readers demand instant translations of popular books.
From creativity to AI
Several established authors are engaging in translation to enhance their understanding of creative processes of writing — of translating thoughts and emotions into a language. Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer award-winning author says, translation has transformed the way she writes; in her book Translating Myself and Others. Deepa Bhasthi, translator of Banu Mushtaq’s Kannada short story collection Heart Lamp, says, “I was very deliberate in my choice to not use italics for the Kannada, Urdu or Arabic words that remain untranslated in English.” This is reflective of a new kind of confidence in the local culture and its expressions, while engaging with a global audience.
Writers no longer want to wait for the long process of translation that takes years and, at times, decades to see the light of other languages. Vikram Sampath, a well-known published author of several research-based books in English, says he had to wait for his books to be translated into Kannada, his mother tongue, for almost 15 years. His well-researched book; Splendours of Royal Mysore, meant for Kannada readers; his two-volume authentic biography of Veer Savarkar; Tipu Sultan; The Saga of Mysore’s Interregnum etc. are still not available in Kannada or Marathi languages.
Not giving up, he has started a start-up NAAV AI, that aims to get writings translated into Indian languages “to infuse frenetic speed, functionality and efficiency into the publishing industry through AI-generated translations.”
The future of the publishing world belongs to good translators — with or without AI.
By Vandana Shukla
July 3, 2025, 12:00 PM -
https://newsarenaindia.com/undefined/translation-gateway-to-global-cultural-understanding/49198
#metaglossia_mundus
"Opera browser update adds built-in translation, custom cursors, and multitasking tools
By Wayne Williams
Norwegian browser company Opera has launched a major update for its desktop browsers Opera One and Opera GX, adding a privacy-focused translation feature, improved multitasking tools, and a new level of personalization for GX users.
The update rolls out as Opera continues to try to compete with bigger players like Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Firefox by leaning into user-driven customization and features.
SEE ALSO: How safe are your browser extensions? New free database helps you find out
Opera Translate is the highlight of the new release. Built directly into Opera One and Opera GX, the tool detects when a webpage is in a different language and instantly offers to translate it, with options for one-time or always-on translation for specific languages.
Unlike most browser translation tools, Opera Translate keeps all translation processing in-house, running through servers based in Europe and avoiding third-party data sharing. This privacy angle is a central part of Opera’s pitch, especially at a time when data handling practices are increasingly under public scrutiny.
The translation feature uses AI-enhanced technology from Lingvanex and supports over 40 languages. According to Opera, this was one of the most requested additions by its global user base. For users browsing news sites in foreign languages, shopping internationally, or researching across different regions, the feature removes a recurring problem while maintaining control over personal data.
In Opera One, the update enhances Split Screen functionality. Now integrated with Tab Islands, the browser allows users to open side-by-side views within grouped tabs, giving them more flexibility when comparing content or managing multitasking workflows. Opera also enabled toolbar access within each tab in Split Screen mode. That means tools like Bookmarks, Downloads, and the Snapshot tool remain accessible without exiting the current view. The Music Player, often used by Opera One’s productivity-focused users, also stays visible throughout Split Screen browsing.
Talking about the new feature, Tomasz Stawarz, Director of Product at Opera, said:
"The internet connects the world, but language can still be a barrier to exploring its full potential. With the introduction of Opera Translate, we're giving our users access to content and ideas from across the globe without compromising their privacy."
Opera GX Browser
Opera GX, the gaming-focused variant of the browser, is pushing even further into personalization with a new feature that lets users fully customize their mouse cursor across the browser interface.
Opera says it is the first browser to offer this level of cursor control, thanks to a collaboration with Sweezy Cursors. More than 30 cursor packs, including animated and static versions, are now available directly through the GX Store. Users don’t need to modify system settings or install extensions to apply these custom designs.
Opera says security was a key concern with this feature as many cursor customization tools from third-party extensions can introduce risks by accessing page content.
Opera GX avoids this by executing all cursor rendering locally within the browser engine, ensuring privacy and performance. The cursor customizations also extend across the entire interface, offering a consistent and immersive browsing experience. Opera says it plans to roll out branded cursor packs based on popular game IPs in the future.
The update also brings Opera GX's Tab Islands feature out of early access and into the stable release. Tab Islands are designed to make managing browser tabs easier by letting users group tabs by purpose and assign colors and names to those groups. This is especially useful for gamers who might want to separate game guides from Discord or YouTube. Whole Tab Islands can now be saved as single Speed Dials on the browser’s homepage, letting users relaunch entire research or gaming setups instantly.
Opera’s focus on built-in tools and user customization is a deliberate strategy to differentiate itself from its larger rivals. While Chrome and Edge dominate market share, Opera has found a niche with users who want a browser that feels personal and doesn’t rely heavily on third-party add-ons. It’s also targeting users who value European data privacy standards, something that becomes a clearer competitive angle with features like in-house translation.
Compared to Firefox, which is also user-focused but more barebones out of the box, Opera continues to add quality-of-life updates with a tighter integration between features. And while Chrome remains the go-to browser for the vast majority of web users, it typically lags in native customization without the use of extensions.
Users can get all of these new features by updating to the latest version of Opera One or Opera GX manually or waiting for the automatic update to arrive. Opera GX is available on both Windows and macOS, and all features, including the animated cursors and Tab Island upgrades, are live now."
https://betanews.com/2025/07/03/opera-browser-built-in-translation/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Japanese yakuza novel wins UK award for crime fiction in translation
A novel depicting yakuza gangster life by a Japanese author has won a prestigious British award for crime fiction.
The Crime Writers' Association awarded its 2025 Dagger prize for crime fiction in translation to Otani Akira's "The Night of Baba Yaga" in London on Thursday. The novel was translated by Sam Bett.
Created in 1955, the Daggers are considered one of the world's most prestigious awards for crime and thriller writing along with the Edgar Awards of the United States.
The story is about the bond between a woman known for her fighting prowess and the only daughter of the head of a Japanese yakuza group. The woman is forced to become the daughter's bodyguard.
It depicts how the two women come to trust each other against the backdrop of the criminal underworld.
The fast-paced novel makes use of graphically violent scenes and language to depict the two women in pursuit of their hopes for their lives.
The book was first published in Japan in 2020. Translated versions later hit the British, US, and South Korean markets. Some reviews described the novel as one that empowers women in a sophisticated way.
Otani, 44, is from Tokyo and was originally a scenario writer for video games. She has written novels and essays on a variety of themes, including love and families.
The Daggers' translated novel category was created in 2006. Japanese author Yuzuki Asako's Butter was also shortlisted for this year's prize.
Otani is the first Japanese Dagger winner and the second Asian, following South Korean writer Yun Ko-eun who won in 2021."
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20250704_05/
#metaglossia_mundus
"...Award-winning poet discusses 'What Is Korean Literature to the International Reader?' at the 2025 LTI Korea Global Literature Forum
Poet Kim Hye-soon speaks during the 2025 LTI Korea Global Literature Forum held at Yonsei University in Seoul on Friday. (LTI Korea)
Translated literature is a gift to the language it arrives in, acclaimed poet Kim Hye-soon said, describing it as the Korean language offering a present — “like tossing a new pebble into the well of another language.”
“I think translating Korean literature isn’t about elevating Korea’s literary status. Rather, it’s about expanding the boundaries of the target language. Translation is a reciprocal relationship, not a one-way transaction,” Kim said.
“We already know how much the boundaries of Korean have broadened through translations of foreign works — how our ways of thinking have deepened and diversified. I believe the same holds true in reverse.”
Kim spoke at the 2025 LTI Korea Global Literature Forum during a wide-ranging onstage conversation with Jeffrey Yang, editor-at-large at New Directions, on the topic “What Is Korean Literature to the International Reader?” New Directions has published two of Kim’s recent English collections: “Autobiography of Death” and “Phantom Pain Wings,” both translated by Choi Don Mee.
Poet Kim Hye-soon (left) and Jeffrey Yang, editor-at-large at New Directions Publishing, attend the 2025 LTI Korea Global Literature Forum held at Yonsei University in Seoul on Friday. (LTI Korea)
Fresh from a monthlong European book tour through Germany, Austria and the UK, Kim said conversations with international audiences had energized her in unexpected ways.
“Through these exchanges, I feel as though we’re expanding the ‘territory of poetry.' Maybe that’s why we call out to poets from afar,” she said.
Kim also reflected on the contrast between how literature is discussed at home and abroad.
“In Korea, I’m often asked about ‘Korean literature’ — where it should be heading, what its defining characteristics are — but honestly, I don’t even know where ‘my own literature’ is headed.”
“Outside the country, however, I’ve always had the impression that people focus more on individual works rather than national categories. I can’t recall being asked a question framed around nationality, and we don’t approach their writers that way either.”
While she’s happy to recommend Korean poets when asked abroad and welcomes growing international interest in Korean literature, Kim noted that she has never thought of herself as writing “Korean literature.”
“I’ve always just seen myself as doing ‘literature,’” she said, adding that she hopes policymakers will move beyond broad national labels and show greater respect for each writer’s individuality.
Poet Kim Hye-soon (center) and Jeffrey Yang (right), editor-at-large at New Directions Publishing, attend the 2025 LTI Korea Global Literature Forum held at Yonsei University in Seoul on Friday. (LTI Korea)
‘Translation is creative act’
Kim has been steadily gaining international recognition, winning numerous accolades worldwide. In 2019, she became the first Asian woman to win Canada’s prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize.
More recently, she was named an International Writer by the Royal Society of Literature in England in 2022, elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April, and shortlisted for Germany’s international prize for literature this year.
Despite these honors, Kim remains candid about her uncertainty over why her work resonates with readers abroad.
“That’s the part I really don’t understand. Whether in Korea or elsewhere, I don’t know exactly why I have readers. Some may be drawn to the way the translation offers a familiar way of speaking, while others might be intrigued by its unfamiliarity. I think I fall into the latter group.”
What has moved her most, however, is not the prizes but what happens to her translators.
“The most striking moments for me are when those who translated my poems later debuted as poets themselves. Some began writing poems while translating my work, opened up their own poetic worlds, published collections and went on to win major awards. That has been the most memorable part.”
She cited Choi, her longtime English translator, who often says that translating Kim’s poems sparked her own writing practice.
“Just as I discover my poems in the sound drifting through this world, I think there’s a similar kind of discovery at work in poetry translation. Translation is not just word-by-word interpretation; it is a creative act.”
Kim shared her views on the art of poetry translation itself.
“I believe that translating poetry begins with translating its form and rhythm,” she said. “When translators ask me what I want most from them, I always tell them: ‘Translate the rhythm.’”
She also acknowledged the inevitable challenges and occasional mistranslations in the process.
“Sometimes a homonym might be misunderstood, for example, the word for ‘tribe’ was translated as ‘lack,’ or ‘starting a pilgrimage’ was rendered as ‘ending a pilgrimage,’” she said.
But she emphasized that translation is not about nitpicking such errors.
“I think of translation as translating the house the poet built,” she said. “The mistakes I mention are more like a cup placed slightly askew on a shelf in that house, a small detail, but the house itself remains intact.”
Updated : July 4, 2025 - 18:36:10
July 4, 2025 - 15:12:49
By Hwang Dong-hee
hwangdh@heraldcorp.com
https://m.koreaherald.com/article/10524686
#metaglossia_mundus
"L’éditeur bordelais Monsieur Toussaint Louverture annonce une nouvelle traduction de «Frankenstein»
«Frankenstein» ouvre la nouvelle collection de classiques de l’éditeur Monsieur Toussaint Louverture
Après avoir rencontré un succès fulgurant avec la saga Blackwater, les éditions Monsieur Toussaint Louverture annoncent leur entrée dans la réédition de grands classiques de la littérature. Premier titre au programme: Frankenstein de Mary Shelley, dans sa version de 1831, avec une traduction inédite signée Marie Darrieussecq, à paraître le 12 septembre.
L'éditeur de l'un des succès les plus inattendus de ces dernières années avec la saga Blackwater de Michael McDowell, Monsieur Toussaint Louverture, a annoncé vendredi se lancer dans la réédition de classiques de la littérature.
Le premier titre dans cette veine sera Frankenstein de Mary Shelley (dans son édition révisée de 1831), avec une traduction inédite de Marie Darieussecq, à paraître le 12 septembre.
«C'est décidé: nous avions envie de revisiter ces grands textes de la littérature mondiale, pour leur donner tout ce que nous avons à donner», a écrit la maison d'édition sur ses réseaux sociaux, avec une photo de la couverture de ce Frankenstein.
«Le hasard nous a fait croiser le chemin de Marie Darrieussecq et sa ferveur pour Mary Shelley et ses créations. Un court texte lu dans la presse nous a tout de suite donné envie de lui écrire pour la convaincre de se lancer. Et elle a accepté», a-t-elle ajouté.
Monsieur Toussaint Louverture édite essentiellement de la littérature étrangère et a connu de belles réussites dans la découverte ou la redécouverte d'auteurs non traduits en France.
C'est le cas de Blackwater de l'Américain Michael McDowell, une saga fantastique et familiale initialement publiée en 1983 et traduite pour la première fois en français en 2022. Les six tomes ont atteint un total d'un million d'exemplaires en un an et demi et continuent à bien se vendre.
Cette maison d'édition est implantée dans un bourg de la région de Bordeaux, Sadirac.
La Britannique Mary Shelley avait achevé à l'âge de 20 ans Frankenstein ou le Prométhée moderne, publié pour la première fois en 1818 et devenu ensuite l'une des fictions les plus lues et adaptées au monde.
Avec AFP"
https://icibeyrouth.com/articles/1319916/lediteur-bordelais-monsieur-toussaint-louverture-annonce-une-nouvelle-traduction-de-frankenstein
#metaglossia_mundus
Valoriser la créativité des traducteurs, c’est privilégier la diversité culturelle et la beauté des langues contre l’uniformisation numérique des textes, fait valoir Philippe Robinet, le directeur-général des éditions Calmann-Lévy.
"La traduction littéraire fait appel à la sensibilité humaine : défendons-la face à l’IA !
Valoriser la créativité des traducteurs, c’est privilégier la diversité culturelle et la beauté des langues contre l’uniformisation numérique des textes, fait valoir Philippe Robinet, le président–directeur des éditions Calmann-Lévy.
La traduction littéraire ne peut être réduite à un simple transfert de mots d’une langue à une autre. Ici, dans une librairie de Lyon, le 26 janvier 2023. (Antoine Boureau/Hans Lucas)
par Philippe Robinet, président-directeur général des éditions Calmann-Lévy
publié aujourd'hui à 15h50
Écouter cet article
Powered by Podle
00:00
00:00
1x
Pour chaque livre traduit, il y a un travail d’une complexité et d’une richesse importantes. Le traducteur n’est pas un simple passeur de mots, il est un créateur à part entière, un artisan du langage qui façonne la réception d’une œuvre, lui donne une nouvelle voix et une nouvelle vie. Sa voix dans une nouvelle langue. Or, à l’heure où l’intelligence artificielle s’impose dans de nombreux secteurs, la reconnaissance du rôle des traducteurs dans le monde de l’édition devient un enjeu fondamental.
Les étudiants en traduction, premières victimes de l’ère ChatGPT
La traduction littéraire est une activité profondément humaine, où la sensibilité, l’intuition, la culture, et la connaissance intime des langues et des contextes jouent un rôle essentiel. Chaque choix du traducteur − un mot, une tournure, un rythme − peut transformer le texte d’origine et influer sur la manière dont le lecteur percevra l’œuvre. C’est un acte de création qui mêle fidélité au texte source et adaptation à la langue cible, dans le but de préserver autant que possible l’esprit, le ton et la puissance évocatrice de l’original.
Cependant, cette fonction est encore trop sous-estimée et le traducteur reste parfois un «invisible» de l’édition. Cette invisibilité est paradoxale, d’autant que le traducteur est indispensable à la circulation des idées et des cultures dans un monde globalisé. C’est pourquoi il est urgent de valoriser ces voix qui, dans l’ombre, donnent vie aux œuvres étrangères."
https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/tribunes/la-traduction-litteraire-fait-appel-a-la-sensibilite-humaine-defendons-la-face-a-lia-20250704_L22BSI27FFD4PKSIK3CHEXEHOY/
#metaglossia_mundus
Le PDG de la Commission de la littérature, de l’édition et de la traduction rencontre l’ambassadrice du Royaume de Norvège en Arabie saoudite
Riyad, 04 juillet 2025, SPA -- Le PDG de la Commission de la littérature, de l’édition et de la traduction, Dr Abdullatif Alwasel, a rencontré aujourd’hui l’ambassadrice du Royaume de Norvège en Arabie saoudite, Mme Kjersti Tromsdal.
Au cours de cette rencontre, les deux parties ont discuté des moyens de renforcer les relations culturelles entre les deux pays, et ont passé en revue plusieurs programmes et initiatives mis en œuvre par la Commission pour encourager les échanges culturels et soutenir les écrivains, les traducteurs et les intellectuels.
Ils ont également exploré les possibilités de coopération dans les domaines de la littérature, de l’édition et de la traduction, ainsi que la participation conjointe à des salons culturels afin de renforcer les liens littéraires entre l’Arabie saoudite et la Norvège.
À cette occasion, Dr Alwasel a présenté plusieurs initiatives destinées à promouvoir les échanges de savoirs, notamment la traduction d’ouvrages norvégiens en arabe et de publications saoudiennes en norvégien, dans le but de diffuser la culture saoudienne à l’international et de favoriser le dialogue interculturel. Par ailleurs, il a invité l’ambassadrice à assister aux prochaines manifestations organisées par la Commission, telles que la Foire internationale du livre de Riyad, le Forum de la traduction et la Conférence internationale de philosophie de Riyad.
-- SPA
02:15 Heure locale 23:15 GMT
0007
https://www.spa.gov.sa/fr/N2351832
#metaglossia_mundus
"Une extension Chrome et Firefox désactive le doublage par IA de YouTube
Article de Pierre Dandumont
Depuis quelques mois, YouTube tend à traduire automatiquement les titres des vidéos dans la langue de l'utilisateur, mais aussi de traduire automatiquement le contenu des vidéos, avec dans de nombreux cas de l'audio généré par une intelligence artificielle1. Si ce comportement vous énerve et que vous utilisez Firefox ou Chrome, il existe une extension : YouTube No Translation.
Un exemple de titres de vidéos traduits automatiquement. Image iGeneration.
Elle effectue quatre opérations sur les vidéos. La première est de garder le titre original, sans afficher la traduction automatique. La seconde est d'empêcher la traduction de la description. La troisième va forcer la piste audio originale dans tous les cas, pour éviter que YouTube impose une version doublée ou générée par IA. Enfin, elle désactive les sous-titres générés automatiquement et force le cas échéant les sous-titres dans la langue originale de la vidéo, s'ils existent2.
MrBeast est mis en avant sur le site de l'extension, mais ses vidéos ne sont pas traduites par IA.
L'extension est gratuite mais l'auteur propose aux personnes qui apprécient son travail de l'aider... peut-être pour lui demander de développer une version pour Safari..."
https://www.msn.com/fr-fr/actualite/technologie-et-sciences/une-extension-chrome-et-firefox-d%C3%A9sactive-le-doublage-par-ia-de-youtube/ar-AA1HVfXB
#metaglossia_mundus
"...Le Prix Mallarmé étranger de la traduction est attribué à Mariano Rolando Andrade et Christophe Manon pour Chansons des mers du Sud, paru chez L'herbe qui tremble.
Créé en 1976, le Prix Mallarmé est l'une des plus anciennes distinctions consacrées à la poésie de langue française. Décerné par l'Académie Mallarmé, composée de vingt-neuf membres sous la présidence de Sylvestre Clancier, le prix récompense un auteur pour un recueil ou l'ensemble de son œuvre.
Outre la reconnaissance littéraire, il s'accompagne d'une dotation financière et d'une résidence poétique d'un mois à Brive. La remise du prix aura lieu le 8 novembre prochain à la Foire du livre de Brive, avec le soutien de la Ville.
Né en 1950, Valeriu Stancu est une figure reconnue des lettres européennes, auteur d’une œuvre dense, traduite dans plus de vingt pays. Écrivain, traducteur et éditeur, il partage sa production entre le roumain et le français. Son parcours littéraire comprend une soixantaine d'ouvrages parmi lesquels Miroirs du sommeil (L’Arbre à paroles, 2010), Ballade de mon ami le bourreau (Éditions Maïa, 2020) et L’insomniaque fusil de Rimbaud (Phi, 2024)...
Le Prix Mallarmé étranger de la traduction
Créé en 2022, le Prix Mallarmé étranger de la traduction distingue les traducteurs et traductrices qui contribuent à faire découvrir en français la richesse de la poésie internationale. La cérémonie de remise se tiendra le 18 décembre 2025 à la Maison de la Poésie de Paris.
Le Prix Mallarmé étranger de la traduction 2025 revient à l'écrivain et journaliste argentin Mariano Rolando Andrade et au poète français Christophe Manon pour la traduction en français du recueil Chansons des mers du Sud, publié chez L'herbe qui tremble.
Né à Buenos Aires en 1973, Mariano Rolando Andrade est l’auteur de plusieurs ouvrages parmi lesquels Les Voyages de Rimbaud (1996) et Ballades des mers du Nord (2023). Il a notamment reçu le Prix international Juan Rulfo décerné par RFI. La cérémonie est prévue le 18 décembre à la Maison de la Poésie de Paris.
Christophe Manon, poète prolifique, est connu pour son œuvre traversant poésie, roman et traduction. Il a publié récemment Signes des temps (2024), Tout disparaîtra (2024) et Un amour (2025), ainsi qu’une trilogie aux éditions Verdier (Extrêmes et lumineux, Pâture de vent, Porte du Soleil).
L'an dernier, le Prix Mallarmé étranger de la traduction a été décerné à Marie Vrinat pour sa version française du recueil Là où nous ne sommes pas de Guéorgui Gospodinov, publié aux éditions Les Carnets du Dessert de Lune. Quant au Prix Mallarmé, il a distingué Alain Breton pour son recueil Je ne rendrai pas le feu, paru aux éditions Les Hommes sans Épaules..."
Par Dépêche
04/07/2025
Contact : depeche@actualitte.com
https://actualitte.com/article/124775/prix-litteraires/prix-mallarme-2025-deux-laureats-pour-celebrer-la-poesie-et-la-traduction
#metaglossia_mundus
Oxford Languages are working to make our language data available as widely as possible to support under-resourced languages and global varieties of English.
"If you have a smartphone or use some of the biggest search engines, then you have Oxford Languages’ dictionaries at your fingertips.
While the Oxford English Dictionary is our flagship title, we don’t just hold English language data. In support of our mission at OUP—to advance the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide—we work with cutting-edge technology providers to make Oxford Languages’ data available as widely as possible.
One of our aims is to digitize under-resourced languages to support localization. We service over 60 languages, and in 2024/25, we launched 10 new language datasets, ranging from Indonesian, to Sanskrit, to Assamese. For such languages, we might develop the content with out partners, or we may acquire and develop it by working with native linguists, local agencies, authors, institutes, foundations, and our in-house development teams.
Under-resourced languages
Sometimes our customers will request a new language dataset for their digital products, but we also look for gaps in the market. In high demand and under-resourced, in 2024, we successfully added the leading Indonesian Monolingual Dictionary to our language portfolio. Sourcing, developing and investing in under-resourced languages helps to widen access to these languages, while also digitally preserving culture and history.
Alexandra Feeley
Director of Business and Market Development
“In countries where English is commonly spoken but not the main language, you are forced to use English for technology because the features don’t tend to support native speakers. When I open my phone or my email nowadays, I expect predictive text, to fill in the blanks, to spell check. But when you look at Indian languages or African languages for example, there isn’t that same level of native digitalization.
“This is why we have created resources to allow technologists to develop the tools for those under-resourced languages. If you can experience something in your native language, it becomes an extension of you and it’s then a lot easier to relate to products and to expand your usage of things.”
Some of the under-resourced languages we’re working on include Hebrew and Catalan. When we work on such projects, our teams make sure we’re best representing the language and how it is spoken by reviewing corpora, including inflection coverage and having complete and short definitions.
World Englishes
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. However, English is not the same language that it was when the First Edition was published in 1928.
Danica Salazar
OED World English Editor
“Since then, it has become a truly global language, spoken by billions of people of immensely varied origins and backgrounds—and as these people continue to contribute to the richness and diversity of the English lexicon, so will the OED continue to adapt its policies and practices in order to ensure that these contributions are represented in the dictionary.”
Collectively, we refer to global varieties of English as ‘World Englishes’, supporting our goal in the lead up to the centenary of the OED’s First Edition in 2028 in widening the geographical coverage of the dictionary. Our World English programme recognizes that English is a world language, and so British English is no longer regarded as the dominant form of English but just one of many varieties. Each quarterly update of the OED now includes examples from different World Englishes. You can find out more in the March 2025 update, which features ‘untranslatable’ words.
As language continues to evolve, we regularly update our datasets to make sure our customers’ dictionary displays, games, mobile applications, and other solutions stay current with modern English. You can find out more about this here.
Another ongoing project is the Oxford Dictionary of African American English (ODAAE), which will apply the depth and rigour of the OED’s historical methodology specifically to the study of African American English. A diverse team of lexicographers and researchers are creating a dictionary that will illuminate the history, meaning, and significance of this body of language. More than 1,350 meanings for 1,100 words are now in draft with 300 words finalized.
John McCullough, Lexicographer at the ODAAE, said:
“What is really important about the ODAAE is our opportunity to represent speakers of African American English in a way that is both accurate and respectful to the enduring legacy of the language, and provide high-quality research evidence that highlights its importance to the cultural and linguistic landscape of English throughout history.
“This is a language variety that has thrived in its expression of Black identity, often despite and in spite of historical marginalization and stigmatization. We are proud of the work we have done to include a wide range of entries that reflect the ways in which AAE is a distinct yet inextricable foundation of American English and continues to linguistically innovate and spearhead cultural change.”
Anansa Benbow, also an ODAAE Lexicographer, said:
“African American English has undeniably influenced global English. I am proud to help document its lexicon through my work on the ODAAE, a project that is about amplifying voices, histories, and identities, as well as honouring and preserving the richness of African American English. It is a project that speaks to the heart of our mission at OUP.”
New technologies help our data go further
The OED Labs initiative is helping the shape the future of the Oxford English Dictionary research experience through new technologies.
We have been piloting an AI search assistant on OED.com for users to search across the dictionary’s content quickly, without needing to understand the many different filters that are available. We are also exploring how we support our lexicographers to use AI to research, revise, and publish OED entries more quickly, as well as developing prototypes to investigate how OED data can further empower research.
Elinor Hawkes, Senior Product Manager, notes:
“The OED has a long history of embracing new technologies and we’re excited to see what the future holds. Our dictionary data not only includes contemporary and historical definitions, but also data how, when, where, and by whom words were used. By coupling this rich dataset with emerging technologies, we are able to support new avenues of research better than ever before.”
3 July 2025
You can find out more about Oxford Languages 👇🏿
https://corp.oup.com/spotlights/making-language-data-available-and-representative-worldwide/
#metaglossia_mundus
"AI safety is a theme rapidly gaining traction across the continent and globally. But rather than echoing familiar concerns about rogue algorithms, killer robots, or existential threats to humanity, a webinar held by the EthicsLab on 18 June 2025 sought to ask a more situated question: what does it mean to talk about safety in Africa, and for whom is safety at stake?
Our guest speaker, Dr. Samuel Segun, Senior Researcher at the Global Centre on AI Governance, offered a panoptic and conceptually sharp overview of current risks, regulatory blind spots, and opportunities for African leadership in shaping AI safety. His framing was especially valuable because it resisted attempts to limit safety to a narrow technical question about models misfiring. Instead, it brought into view the social, political, infrastructural, and epistemic conditions that shape how AI is built, used, and governed on the continent.
Framing the issue: AI Safety ≠ AI Ethics?
Segun opened by clarifying that AI safety and AI ethics, though often used interchangeably, are not quite the same. Safety tends to ask whether a system will behave reliably and avoid unintended harms. Ethics, by contrast, probes whether systems and the societies that shape them are structured in ways that are just, inclusive, and normatively defensible.
Yet in practice, the line blurs. In Africa, like elsewhere, the harms are not abstract but lived, including manipulated elections, surveillance of activists, online gender-based violence, and misinformation campaigns that worsen public health crises. These are not merely questions of safety but equally questions of power. They raise questions about what happens when frameworks of “safety” and “risk” assume a universal subject or an abstract “humanity”, and overlook the uneven geographies of exposure, harm, and harm prevention. Specifically, they overlook the possibility that what is safe for some may not be safe for others.
Although Segun drew a distinction between safety and ethics, his broad framing of safety ended up encompassing many classic ethical concerns like justice, labour exploitation, human rights, environmental harm. Jantina De Vries’ intervention pointed to the risks of this move, asking if ethics loses its critical edge when absorbed into safety. We may come to see political problems as technical ones, or assume that preventing harm is the same as enabling justice.
While AI safety tends to focus on preventing harm or managing risk, ethics asks deeper questions about how technology shapes the way we live, who is included or excluded, and what values guide these choices. De Vries sought to direct attention not just to how systems work, but to how people use them, and to the social conditions that make some groups more vulnerable than others.
Three risk zones: Malicious use, malfunction, systemic harm
Segun drew on the three broad categories of risk identified in the International AI Safety Report (2025), which include malicious use, malfunction, and systemic harm. Each is worth unpacking.
Malicious use includes deliberate weaponisation of AI technologies: surveillance tools used to monitor dissent, deepfakes deployed during elections, voice-cloning scams targeting vulnerable users. African cases abound, from Zimbabwe’s use of facial recognition cameras to Uganda’s police profiling of activists to cybercriminals in Ghana impersonating relatives for mobile money scams. In these cases, AI becomes less a tool for liberation and more a tool for control and deception.
Malfunction refers to unintended but no less harmful failures: biased algorithms trained on non-African data, healthcare chatbots that provide dangerous advice, systems that “hallucinate” but are treated as infallible. The data scarcity in African languages and contexts makes such errors more likely, and the consequences more severe, especially when users are structurally positioned to trust or rely on the system.
Systemic risk looks at the bigger picture. What happens when AI accelerates job displacement, undermines already fragile labour markets, or amplifies environmental harm? What futures are being made impossible or foreclosed? As Segun noted, Africa’s developmental trajectories, especially around tech-enabled outsourcing, may be prematurely cut off by automation. And as data centres expand, their energy and water demands threaten communities already grappling with scarcity.
These risks are neither hypothetical nor are they evenly distributed. As I noted in our discussion, a critical question in assessing these AI safety risks is: who bears the brunt of these harms? Whose access to water is diverted to cool a data centre? Whose job disappears in the integration of chatbots in call centres? Who is profiled, monitored, or manipulated, and who is shielded from those effects? AI safety and risk is never just about technical systems; it is always about people, positioned differently in power and precarity.
Regulating in a global ecosystem
One recurring question in the discussion was whether Africa can meaningfully regulate AI in a world where much of the technology is developed elsewhere. Segun argued that AI regulation cannot be siloed from broader data governance. Foundational protections like privacy, data ownership, and consumer rights are often cited as prerequisites for meaningful AI regulation. But perhaps the more urgent question is: who decides what counts as foundational? In African contexts where precarious labour conditions and environmental vulnerability are already widespread, is it clear that privacy should always be the primary or starting concern? Shouldn’t protections for workers, energy security, or environmental commons be just as foundational given the ways AI technologies intersect with these spheres? What’s at stake, in other words, is not only how we regulate, but which harms we centre in our regulatory imagination.
Some participants pointed to the EU’s AI Act as a possible model, but Segun cautioned against transplanting frameworks without adaptation. Legislation without enforcement, he reminded us, can offer the illusion of protection while leaving underlying harms intact. What is needed is not just policy, but capacity to audit, to adapt, and to govern. Encouragingly, there are efforts underway. Several African countries are drafting AI strategies. Kenya, Segun tells us, is part of the international AI Safety Institute Network (though it does not yet have a domestic institute). But continent-wide coordination remains limited and uneven.
Toward African-led responses
Segun proposed five directions for action, each of which invites further engagement:
A human rights-based approach to AI governance grounded in principles like non-discrimination, privacy, and participation.
An African AI Safety Institute as a dedicated space for research, risk mitigation, and knowledge exchange across the continent.
Early detection systems and tools that can flag AI-generated fakes and scaled manipulation, with support for African languages and local contexts.
Public literacy and capacity-building that includes not only technical training, but critical media and civic education.
Enforcement, not just legislation to ensure that policy frameworks are effectively implemented.
Each of these ideas deserves deeper conversation. Who defines what counts as “safe”? How do we build detection systems without reinforcing surveillance logics? Can public literacy campaigns avoid becoming top-down digital paternalism?
Closing thoughts: On safety, ethics, and imagination
It is clear that the term safety does useful work, alerting us to danger and demanding precaution. But it also has limits. It can drift into technocratic neutrality, obscuring the political choices embedded in design and deployment. Choices about what gets built, how and where; whose data is used; and which harms are prioritised are always shaped by competing values and interests. Safety, and its proxy of risk, can also flatten difference, treating harms as universal rather than situated. Is it worth building on and pushing beyond safety, toward something like justice or even care?"
Dr Anye Nyamnjoh
Senior Research Officer, EthicsLab
01 Jul 2025
https://health.uct.ac.za/ethics-lab/articles/2025-07-01-ai-safety-africa-whats-stake-and-who-decides
#metaglossia_mundus
"From healthcare to higher education, and digital inclusion to identity politics, language is emerging as both a barrier and a bridge in shaping access, justice, and transformation.
These themes took centre stage at the 2025 Southern African Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Society (SALALS) Conference, held from 25 to 27 June at Nelson Mandela University’s Business School.
Professors Quentin Williams and Pamela Maseko, David Blignaut, Head of Department, Linguistics and Applied Linguistics and Prof Lynn Mario de Souza.
Under the theme “Traditions, Transformations and African Thought: Imagining Linguistics in Africa for the 21st Century,” the conference brought together linguists, educators, and language practitioners from across Southern Africa to interrogate how linguistic practices and policies can better reflect African realities and resist colonial legacies.
“This conference invites us to honour traditions while embracing necessary transformation — and to do so through the lens of African intellectual thought,” said the organising committee in the conference foreword.
“We ask: how can we imagine a linguistics in Africa that is rooted in the continent’s own frameworks of knowing and being?”
Hosted by the Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, the conference featured keynote addresses from two globally renowned scholars: Professor Lynn Mario de Souza from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and Professor Quentin Williams from the University of the Western Cape.
Challenging epistemic injustice
Professor De Souza introduced the concept of epistemic activism, critiquing the dominance of the Global North in knowledge production and calling for the recognition of Global South epistemologies.
“We cannot normalise the language of the colonisers,” he said. “Instead, we must embrace double consciousness.”
Prof De Souza challenged the tendency to view language as a monolingual, monocultural system – a perspective that, he argued, fails to reflect the complex, plural realities of African societies. “What we see as pluralism is often interpreted by the North as many monolingualisms,” he explained.
Central to his address was a call to resist this imposed linguistic framing and instead cultivate ways of knowing rooted in African pluralism and multilingual lived experience. He concluded with an invitation to embrace serendipity – the idea of accepting uncertainty and the ongoing nature of communication: “The process of communication is never complete. It’s about constant feedback, adjustment, and learning.”
Language, race and “In Difference”
In his keynote, Prof Williams reflected on the emergence of the non-racial tradition in South African sociolinguistics during the 1980s – a response to the weaponisation of language under apartheid.
While acknowledging the strides made since then, he argued that the field has yet to fully reckon with the legacy of apartheid-era linguistics and its ongoing influence on contemporary understandings of race and language.
To advance the field, Williams proposed the concept of “in difference” – a fluid, relational approach to understanding linguistic identity that moves beyond fixed racial or linguistic categories.
He illustrated this with a case study of the local pop group Woman2Woman, whose performance of a Beyoncé cover, blending Kaaps and South African English, sparked debate around linguistic authenticity. Through this example, Williams demonstrated how marginalised speakers use language to negotiate identity and challenge dominant norms.
In closing, he called for a sociolinguistics that embraces the contested, evolving nature of language and difference.
Reimagining humanities
The conference also featured vigorous panel discussions on the need to localise language policies to support meaningful inclusion across social institutions.
It also included a session titled “Promoting African Scholarship to a Global Academic Audience”, which offered insights into academic publishing, particularly for emerging researchers seeking to contribute to scholarly discourse.
In her address, Prof Pamela Maseko, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, noted the wide representation of institutions from South Africa and abroad – emphasising the global relevance of the conversations taking place.
Prof Maseko framed the conference as a critical space for both reflection and reimagination, especially in addressing epistemic injustices that continue to shape academia and society at large.
She spoke to the historical marginalisation of African languages and knowledge systems, posing the crucial question: Whose language and knowledge matters – and is allowed to be heard – in our academic spaces?
Calling for a truly Africa-purposed humanities education, Prof Maseko stressed the need for curricula that reflect the continent’s realities while advancing transformative societal goals.
In conclusion, she reaffirmed the significance of the conference as an extension of the Faculty's mission to build a Humanities curriculum that is Africa-centred, socially conscious, and ethically grounded.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Learning and Teaching, Dr Muki Moeng, noted that Southern African linguistics and applied linguistics are well-positioned to awaken African scholarship, epistemologies, and systems of thought.
Dr Moeng emphasised the importance of generating knowledge systems rooted in the global South. She concluded by highlighting that this conference reinforces the need for African scholarship that embodies African epistemologies, rather than relying solely on Western paradigms."
01/07/2025
https://news.mandela.ac.za/News/Language-as-a-bridge-and-barrier-SALALS-2025-exp
#metaglossia_mundus
La traduction représente un «soft power» essentiel pour façonner un discours sécuritaire global inclusif et promouvoir la compréhension interculturelle.
"La traduction s’est imposée comme un levier incontournable pour le renforcement de la sécurité nationale et internationale, ont affirmé les participants à un colloque international organisé mercredi à Rabat, sur le thème «Traduction et sécurité : le rôle de la traduction dans le renforcement de la sécurité nationale et internationale.»
Organisée par l’Organisation du monde islamique pour l’éducation, les sciences et la culture (Icesco), en collaboration avec l’Université arabe Naif des sciences de sécurité en Arabie saoudite, cette rencontre a permis de mettre en exergue le rôle multidimensionnel de la traduction, notamment en termes de transfert rapide et précis d’informations sensibles, dans le cadre de la lutte contre le terrorisme et la criminalité organisée ou encore en matière de gestion des crises sécuritaires urgentes.
S'exprimant à cette occasion, le directeur général de l’Icesco, Dr Salem ben Mohammed Al-Malik, a souligné que la traduction représente aujourd’hui un «soft power» essentiel pour façonner un discours sécuritaire global inclusif et promouvoir la compréhension interculturelle, mettant l’accent sur la nécessité de créer des espaces culturels sûrs, fondés sur la diversité linguistique et les valeurs d'entente mutuelle.
Dr Al-Malik a également mis en garde contre une dépendance excessive à la traduction automatique, qui, malgré ses avantages technologiques, demeure incapable de saisir la complexité des contextes culturels et sécuritaires. Dans ce sens, il a rappelé la création par l’Icesco d’un centre spécialisé de traduction et d’édition, dédié à la production de traductions fidèles, respectueuses des spécificités culturelles et sécuritaires, et à la valorisation de la culture islamique sur la scène mondiale.
De son côté, le contrôleur général et porte-parole de la Direction générale de la Sûreté nationale (DGSN) et de la Direction générale de la surveillance du Territoire (DGST), Boubker Sabik, a fait observer que la traduction constitue un maillon essentiel de la coopération sécuritaire et judiciaire internationale, notamment en matière d’extradition, de mandats d’arrêt ou d’exécution des commissions rogatoires.
Il a expliqué que la traduction exige une extrême précision et des compétences élevées, en raison de la sensibilité des informations échangées, qui peuvent avoir d’importantes implications juridiques, notant qu'une traduction rigoureuse contribue à neutraliser les menaces sécuritaires et à renforcer la stabilité.
Évoquant l’impact des technologies, M. Sabik a souligné que la sécurité et la traduction ont toutes deux bénéficié des avancées numériques, notamment de l’intelligence artificielle, dans le traitement rapide et massif de données et de textes, relevant que cette technologie ne saurait remplacer la supervision humaine, notamment dans des domaines sensibles comme la sécurité et la justice.
Pour sa part, le secrétaire du conseil supérieur de l’Université arabe Naïf pour les sciences de la sécurité, Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Harfash, a précisé que l’université a lancé «l'initiative de la traduction sécuritaire» dans le cadre de ses stratégies de recherche visant à soutenir les politiques sécuritaires fondées sur les preuves scientifiques.
Cette initiative tient compte de l'insuffisance des références scientifiques disponibles en langue arabe en matière de formation sécuritaire, a fait observer M. Al Harfash, également chargé des relations extérieures à l’université.
Dans ce contexte, l’université veille à traduire d'ouvrages enseignés dans les établissements de formation sécuritaires les plus prestigieux à l’échelle mondiale, dans le cadre de ses efforts soutenus visant l’amélioration des cursus, a-t-il poursuivi.
Au programme de ce colloque figurent plusieurs axes traitant du «Rôle de la traduction face aux questions sécuritaires et le renforcement de la sécurité nationale et internationale», «Le partenariat stratégique entre les institutions sécuritaires, les experts en traduction et les organisations internationales», «Les défis linguistiques et culturels dans la traduction sécuritaire», «La traduction sécuritaire et les défis de l’évolution numérique» ainsi que de «La traduction et la cybersécurité».
À cette occasion, un mémorandum d’entente a été signé entre le centre de traduction et d'édition et l’École supérieure Roi Fahd de traduction, en vue de renforcer la coopération scientifique et la formation mutuelle, et de promouvoir la traduction au niveau régional et international, dans la voie de la promotion de la connaissance et le soutien des compétences dans le domaine de la traduction spécialisée.
LE MATIN | 03 JUILLET 2025 À 16:15
https://lematin.ma/culture/la-traduction-levier-de-la-securite-nationale-et-internationale/289104
#metaglossia_mundus
Créé en 1995, et d'abord connu sous le nom de Prix Amédée Pichot, le Grand Prix de traduction de la Ville d’Arles distingue chaque année la traduction littéraire d’une œuvre de fiction contemporaine. Il honore à la fois sa qualité et les défis qu’elle a relevés. Le jury, composé de traductrices et traducteurs aux côtés d'écrivaines et écrivains, vient de dévoiler la liste des six finalistes de l’édition 2025.
"Qui remportera le Grand Prix de traduction de la Ville d’Arles ?
Créé en 1995, et d'abord connu sous le nom de Prix Amédée Pichot, le Grand Prix de traduction de la Ville d’Arles distingue chaque année la traduction littéraire d’une œuvre de fiction contemporaine. Il honore à la fois sa qualité et les défis qu’elle a relevés. Le jury, composé de traductrices et traducteurs aux côtés d'écrivaines et écrivains, vient de dévoiler la liste des six finalistes de l’édition 2025.
Le 03/07/2025 à 13:02 par Dépêche
Le Grand Prix de traduction de la Ville d’Arles souffle déjà ses 30 bougies. Cette année, la remise du prix se fera le vendredi 7 novembre 2025 à la Chapelle du Méjan, à Arles, à l’occasion des 42es Assises de la traduction littéraire.
Le jury 2025 du Grand Prix de traduction de la Ville d’Arles réunit l’écrivaine et traductrice de l’anglais Jakuta Alikavazovic, l’écrivain et traducteur du russe Yves Gauthier, ainsi qu’Isabelle Kalinowski, spécialiste de la traduction de l’allemand. Emmanuelle Péchenart apporte son expertise du chinois, Delphine Valentin celle de l’espagnol, tandis que Dominique Vitalyos navigue entre anglais, malaisien et indonésien. L’écrivaine Nina Yargekov complète ce jury.
Ensemble, ils ont constitué une liste de 6 ouvrages finalistes, concourant au titre de grand lauréat et à sa récompense de 5000 €. Alors, qui succédera à Monique Baccelli et Antonio Werli, lauréats 2024 pour leur traduction de l’italien de Horcynus Orca, de Stefano d’Arrigo (Le Nouvel Attila, 2023) ?
Voici la sélection 2025 :
Bernard Banoun pour sa traduction de l’allemand (Autriche) de Le champ de Josef Winkler (Verdier, 2024)
Laura Brignon pour sa traduction de l’italien de Les Merveilles de Viola Ardone (Albin Michel, 2024)
Sébastien Cagnoli pour sa traduction du finnois de À la recherche du vivant d’Iida Turpeinen (Autrement, 2024)
Stéphanie Dujols pour sa traduction de l’arabe (Palestine) de Je suis ma liberté de Nasser Abu Srour (Gallimard, 2024)
Laure Hinckel pour sa traduction du roumain de Théodoros de Mircea Cărtărescu (éditions Noir sur Blanc, 2024)
Marily Le Nir pour sa traduction du roumain (Moldavie) de Cette corde qui m’attache à la terre de Lorina Bălteanu (éditions des Syrtes, 2024)
Retrouver la liste des prix littéraires français et francophones
Par Dépêche
Contact : depeche@actualitte.com"
https://actualitte.com/article/124756/prix-litteraires/qui-remportera-le-grand-prix-de-traduction-de-la-ville-d-arles
#metaglossia_mundus
"MONTREAL — Quebec’s language watchdog has changed its tune on whether it’s acceptable to use the word “go” to cheer on sports teams.
In a new guideline posted in its online dictionary, the Office québécois de la langue française says that while “allez” is the preferred term, it’s now “partially legitimized” to use the English word to show encouragement.
The flip-flop comes after the office took a hard line with Montreal’s transit agency, pressing it for months in 2024 to scrub the word “go” from the electronic signs on more than 1,000 city buses.
The watchdog confirmed it had changed its position after The Canadian Press obtained a series of emails through access to information legislation, revealing it gave the transit agency a green light to use “go” in June.
The reversal followed a public outcry on the eve of the Montreal Canadiens’ first playoff home game in April, when the Montreal Gazette reported how the transit agency had replaced “Go! Canadiens Go!” with “Allez! Canadiens Allez!” to stay on the watchdog’s good side.
The revelations prompted French-language Minister Jean-François Roberge to intervene, declaring that the expression “Go Habs Go” is part of Quebec culture, and that any future complaints about the slogan would be dismissed.
That statement verged on political interference and placed the watchdog in a difficult position, according to one expert.
“The office had to respond to a political order,” said Benoît Melançon, emeritus professor of French literature at Université de Montréal. “The minister said, ‘You will accept this,’ so the office had to find a way to accept it.”
The transit agency says it hasn’t decided whether it will put the word “go” back on its bus displays. On Wednesday, a spokesperson said the agency is now “beginning its reflection on the subject.”
In an April statement, Dominique Malack, the president of the language office, agreed that the slogan “Go Habs Go” is anchored in Quebec’s history. Still, she went on to say that the word “go” is an anglicism, and that public bodies have an obligation to use “exemplary” French, which includes using only French words in their signage.
Emails released to The Canadian Press show the transit agency asked the watchdog in May, following the uproar, for authorization to start using “go” again. A month later, on June 6, the language office directed transit officials to its new entry for the word “allez” in its online dictionary of terminology, a reference guide for the proper use of French in Quebec.
The page notes how the anglicism “go” has been used in Quebec since at least the 1980s and is “well-established” in common parlance. “It is considered to be partially legitimized,” the entry says.
When asked by The Canadian Press to comment on the newly released email correspondence, the watchdog confirmed it had updated its position.
“The office now considers that a public body can use the interjection go in a context of encouragement … without this compromising the duty of exemplarity incumbent upon it under the Charter of the French Language,” spokesperson Gilles Payer told The Canadian Press in an email.
Payer confirmed the entry was newly published on May 30. “The media coverage of the case concerning the use of the borrowed word ‘go’ in a sports context led the office to officially assess the acceptability” of the word, he said.
Melançon, the French literature professor, said the new rationale – especially the term “partially legitimized” – suggests the office was uneasy with the change.
“This must have given rise to some pretty intense internal debates,” he said. “‘Do we take into account what the minister is telling us or do we not take it into account? If we don’t take it into account, what are the consequences? If we do, how do we justify changing our minds?’”
At least one transit agency official felt dubious about the original complaint, which related to a bus displaying the words “Go! CF Mtl Go!” in support of Montreal’s professional soccer club. She called the issue a “grey zone” in a June 2024 email to colleagues.
“We’ve been using the word ‘go’ for years without a problem,” she wrote. “Are we going to change everything because of one complaint?”
But by later that month, the agency had decided to scrap the word, which involved manually updating the display on each of more than 1,000 buses over a period of months.
The agency has said no further change will be made before the buses undergo regular maintenance in the fall.
The language office has received at least two other complaints about the word “go” in the last five years, according to a response to a separate access-to-information request.
In 2023, someone complained about the slogan “Go Habs Go” appearing on an outdoor billboard. That complaint was dismissed because the expression is a trademark.
A similar complaint in 2021 targeted the hashtag #GoHabsGo that appears in oversized letters outside the Bell Centre in Montreal, the home arena of the Canadiens.
The person who filed the complaint suggested that to comply with Quebec’s language rules, the expression “Allez les Habitants allez” should appear alongside the English slogan, in larger letters. “And yes, I’m serious, if the law applies, then apply it! :)” the person wrote.
According to the language watchdog, that complaint was resolved following an intervention, though it provided no details. A spokesperson for the hockey team declined to comment."
By Canadian Press
Jul 3, 2025 | 2:05 AM
https://larongenow.com/2025/07/03/quebec-language-watchdog-now-says-its-ok-to-use-go-to-support-sports-teams-2/
#metaglossia_mundus
"RWS continues winning streak with four awards in a year for its neural machine translation solution
MAIDENHEAD, England–(BUSINESS WIRE)–RWS, a content solutions company, powered by technology and human expertise, today announced that its Language Weaver solution has been selected as winner of the ‘Machine Translation Solution of the Year’ award in the 8th annual AI Breakthrough Awards program conducted by AI Breakthrough.
The AI Breakthrough Awards shine a spotlight on the boldest innovators and most impactful technologies leading the charge in AI across a comprehensive set of categories, including generative AI, agentic AI, natural language processing and industry-specific AI applications. This year’s program attracted more than 5,000 nominations from over 20 different countries.
“While many competitors offer fragmented capabilities, Language Weaver delivers a uniquely comprehensive translation experience tailored for global enterprises,” said Steve Johansson, Managing Director, AI Breakthrough. “We’re pleased to award RWS with the 2025 award for ‘Machine Translation Solution of the Year!’”
The latest award follows three other recent industry accolades, including two 2025 AI Excellence Awards and an AI Breakthrough Award in 2024.
Language Weaver is an AI-powered translation solution that seamlessly integrates adaptive neural machine translation (NMT), scalable performance, intuitive usability and enterprise-grade security into a single, end-to-end platform. The solution ensures compliance with data protection regulations and offers robust privacy controls as well as flexible deployment options – whether in the cloud, on-premises, or in hybrid environments.
“This award is a true testament to the incredible dedication and innovation of our Language Weaver team,” said Mark Lawyer, President of Regulated Industries & Linguistic AI at RWS. “Their passion, expertise, and relentless pursuit of excellence have positioned Language Weaver as a leader in AI-powered translation – capable of helping clients to handle high volumes of complex, multilingual content.”
The Language Weaver platform processes up to 500,000 words per minute across 150+ languages and its adaptive AI models continuously learn and refine translations. It incorporates industry-specific glossaries, branded terminology, and real-time feedback for enhanced contextual accuracy.
About RWS
RWS is a content solutions company, powered by technology and human expertise. We grow the value of ideas, data and content by making sure organizations are understood. Everywhere.
Our proprietary technology, 45+ AI patents and human experts help organizations bring ideas to market faster, build deeper relationships across borders and cultures, and enter new markets with confidence – growing their business and connecting them to a world of opportunities.
It’s why over 80 of the world’s top 100 brands trust RWS to drive innovation, inform decisions and shape brand experiences.
With 60+ global locations, across five continents, our teams work with businesses across almost all industries. Innovating since 1958, RWS is headquartered in the UK and publicly listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L).
For further information, please visit: rws.com.
About AI Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the AI Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in Artificial Intelligence technologies, services, companies and products. The AI Breakthrough Awards provide public recognition for the achievements of AI companies and products in categories including Generative AI, Machine Learning, AI Platforms, Robotics, Business Intelligence, AI Hardware, Computer Vision and more. For more information visit AIBreakthroughAwards.com.
Tech Breakthrough LLC does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our recognition programs, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with award designations. Tech Breakthrough LLC recognition consists of the opinions of the Tech Breakthrough LLC organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Tech Breakthrough LLC disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this recognition program, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Contacts
RWS
Denis Davies
Corporate Communications
ddavies@rws.com
+44 1628 410105
https://siliconcanals.com/language-weaver-takes-grand-prize-for-machine-translation-at-2025-ai-breakthrough-awards/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Can AI Translators Do the Work of Bilingual Staffers?
As demographics change, bilingual public-sector workers can’t always keep up with all the “new” languages spoken by constituents. A Wordly report and client offer an inside view of the changes.
Bilingual staffers shoulder much of the translation burden for local governments, but artificial intelligence is taking on more of that work.
That’s according to a fresh report from Wordly, an AI translation service used by public agencies.
The survey findings from Wordly, combined with experiences from one of its larger clients, paints a useful picture of the state of public-sector translation.
The company found that 66 percent of local governments rely on bilingual staff, while 31 percent use AI tools for translation.
The findings were based on survey responses from 117 local public agencies of various sizes, though almost half of them had populations between 50,000 and 300,000.
San Jose, Calif., is one of the cities that has shifted from in-person interpreters to Wordly’s AI translation tool, a move that, according to the company, has reduced costs and expanded access for people who don’t speak English or don’t speak it well.
The survey also found that local governments tend to improve their translation capabilities mainly to widen access to permitting and other services, to increase civic participation at meetings and other events, and for public safety alerts and communications.
In Washoe County, Nev. — home to Reno — officials use the Wordly AI tech mainly for public meetings, according to Elizabeth Jourdin, an HR manager.
That said, the tool also helps the county onboard new employees who are hard of hearing, train case management professionals who are “monolingual,” provide “language access during marriage ceremonies,” support food safety programs for restaurant owners, and boost customer service at front desk counters in county departments, she told Government Technology via email.
Spanish stands as the county’s primary language need besides English, Jourdin said, though the area’s demographics are changing as the county attracts more people who speak such languages as Korean, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Hindi, Urdu and others.
The county has even bigger plans when it comes to translation. It's working from what she called a “multi-year language access policy which includes enhancing staff support, testing and training to utilize bilingual skillset.”
One thing learned during the effort is that officials should have a broad view of the challenges that come with different languages and translation.
“One of the greatest lessons we learned is that there is not a ‘one-size-fits-all solution’ for our community, or employees,” she said. “The needs of our employees and community occur on a spectrum, and we need to be prepared to offer multiple solutions.”
Thad Rueter
July 02, 2025
https://www.govtech.com/biz/can-ai-translators-do-the-work-of-bilingual-staffers
#metaglossia_mundus
UCLA professor chooses text that an AI platform almost certainly could not translate.
"Michael Berry’s translations make contemporary Chinese fiction accessible to Americans
Peggy McInerny/UCLA
July 2, 2025
UCLA professor Michael Berry has translated 11 Chinese-language works of fiction, three of which were published in early 2025. Among them is “Dead Souls,” the last book in the “Hospital Trilogy” by one of China's most celebrated science fiction writers, Han Song, and two novels by Chinese novelist Fang Fang: “Soft Burial” and “The Running Flame.”
Berry’s most recent translations build on his extensive body of work — scholarly cultural history, translations of Chinese-language novels and books on (and interviews with) Chinese filmmakers — all of which make contemporary Chinese culture more accessible to American audiences.
A professor of contemporary Chinese cultural studies and director of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, Berry spent five years translating Han’s trilogy, with a Guggenheim Fellowship supporting his work on “Dead Souls,” which was published in January. The two newest Fang Fang translations were published in March, in part supported by a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship.
In a recent op-ed on artificial intelligence in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Berry said the three Han novels were one of the more difficult projects he had ever undertaken, in part because he chose material that could not be translated by an AI translation platform.
Read more about Berry’s most recent translations and their contemporary significance on the UCLA International Institute’s website."
https://newsroom.ucla.edu/dept/faculty/michael-berry-translations-contemporary-chinese-fiction-accessible-to-americans
"Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation announces languages for 12th edition
03/07/2025
The Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding has announced the languages for its upcoming 12th edition in 2026, months ahead of the nomination and application period, which is scheduled to take place from January 1 to March 31, 2026, via the award’s official website: www.hta.qa.
In a statement on Wednesday, the award explained that the early announcement of the upcoming edition’s languages comes in response to repeated requests from translators and publishers, contributing to the enhancement of the quality of nominated works and promoting competitiveness and excellence.
The Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding has selected the languages for the 2026 edition in the Single Book Category, choosing English and Chinese among the most widely spoken languages globally.
Chinese returns to the award after being featured in two previous editions, reaffirming the deep Arab-Chinese cultural ties and the growing momentum in translation between the two languages. The total prize amount in this category is $200,000, distributed among the top three winners in each translation direction: from Arabic and into Arabic.
In the Achievement Category, which honours distinguished career paths and cumulative efforts in the field of translation, whether by individuals or institutions, five languages have been selected: Italian, Azerbaijani, Fula (Fulani), in addition to English and Chinese. One prize of $100,000 will be awarded for each language.
The statement clarified that the selection of the award’s languages each year is based on in-depth field studies conducted by a committee of experts and specialists in translation and comparative studies. The selection is guided by precise criteria that take into account the volume of knowledge and translation exchange with the Arabic language, geographical reach, and cultural diversity, reflecting the award’s philosophy of promoting intercultural dialogue and expanding the circles of understanding between cultures.
The Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding is one of the world’s leading independent prizes in the field of translation."
https://www.qatar-tribune.com/article/183879/nation/sheikh-hamad-award-for-translation-announces-languages-for-12th-edition
#metaglossia_mundus
La plateforme de streaming dédiée aux anime cède à la tentation de l'intelligence artificielle et suscite la colère des abonnés.
"Par Arthur Nicolle le 3 juillet 2025 à 9h02
La plateforme de streaming dédiée aux anime cède à la tentation de l’intelligence artificielle et suscite la colère des abonnés.
Il n’aura pas fallu attendre longtemps avant que Crunchyroll ne revienne sur ses promesses concernant l’utilisation de l’intelligence artificielle. En avril dernier, le président de l’entreprise Rahul Purini déclarait dans une interview confiée à Forbes que la plateforme de streaming “n’envisage pas d’utiliser l’IA dans le processus créatif, y compris pour les performances vocales“. Mais si le doublage reste pour l’heure épargné, voilà que la traduction des sous-titres se retrouve déjà affectée par la démocratisation de l’intelligence artificielle. Ce mardi 1er juillet, une nouveauté du nom de Necronomico and the Cosmic Horror Show a fait son apparition dans le catalogue du service et celle-ci s’accompagne d’anomalies qui ne sont pas passées inaperçues.
Les abonnés allemands ayant fait le choix de regarder la série en version originale sous-titrée ont eu la mauvaise surprise de découvrir une coquille pour le moins choquante. À 19min et 12 secondes du premier épisode de l’anime, le dialogue localisé est malencontreusement précédé de “ChatGPT said”, une erreur fatale qui confirme l’utilisation de l’intelligence artificielle pour la traduction des sous-titres.
Crunchyroll has just been caught using ChatGPT for their translations 💀 pic.twitter.com/K93sAbOmMY
— d0nut2x (@d0nut2x) July 1, 2025
Un phénomène généralisé pour cet anime
Cet oubli dans les sous-titres en version allemande a motivé d’autres spectateurs à analyser les traductions dans leurs langues natales et le constat est sans appel. Pas une seule localisation ne semble avoir été épargnée par l’intelligence artificielle. Un rapide coup d’œil sur les dialogues traduits en français suffit à se rendre compte de la catastrophe linguistique que nous impose Crunchyroll. Laisser passer des coquilles telles que “Dites fromages !” – soit la traduction littérale de “Say Cheese” – en lieu et place de “Oustiti” ou “Souriez” lorsque que les personnages prennent une photo est véritablement inadmissible.
Ça va @Crunchyroll_fr on vous dérange pas trop avec votre traduction bien merdique faite par IA ? https://t.co/K5xWZvrtGH pic.twitter.com/el24tB2mlX
— Yoka (@Yokanime) July 1, 2025
Seulement, si les soucis dont souffre cet anime sont très flagrants, combien de séries ont vu leurs sous-titres traduits de la sorte sans que l’on s’en rende compte ? Cette pratique contredit les précédentes promesses de Crunchyroll et apparaît comme un véritable manque de respect, aussi bien pour les professionnels de la traduction dont le travail a été remplacé, que pour les abonnés qui payent afin d’obtenir un service de qualité et non pas ce genre de magouilles. À l’heure où nous écrivons ces lignes, Crunchyroll n’a pas encore publié de réponse officielle à ce scandale qui fait rage sur les réseaux sociaux. Il faudra désormais être à l’affût lors des visionnages en VOSTFR sur la plateforme afin de pouvoir repérer et dénoncer d’autres anomalies du genre. Avez-vous déjà remarqué des sous-titres qui vous ont paru étrangement incorrects ?"
https://www.journaldugeek.com/2025/07/03/scandale-chez-crunchyroll-les-sous-titres-traduits-par-ia-font-leur-entree/
#metaglossia_mundus
"By Molly Reinmann, CNN
(CNN) — A federal judge grappled for over an hour on Wednesday with an effort to force the Trump administration to provide American Sign Language interpreters at White House press briefings.
The case, brought by the National Association of the Deaf, alleges that, in failing to provide sufficient ASL interpretation, the White House is violating deaf Americans’ rights under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 from accessing “critical information in real time.”
US District Judge Amir Ali, one of former President Joe Biden’s final appointees, did not immediately issue a ruling, but he appeared sympathetic to the group’s arguments.
Without live ASL interpretations readily available at White House briefings, NAD attorney Ian Hoffman argued, deaf Americans are “deprived of their ability to participate in the democratic process.”
The Biden administration had staffed all of its press briefings with qualified ASL interpreters, but that policy was discontinued by the Trump White House earlier this year.
In court on Wednesday, the Justice Department argued that the current accessibility services offered by the administration — including live closed captions and written transcripts – are sufficient in providing the deaf community with “meaningful access” to White House information.
In briefings, the NAD had pushed back on this argument, asserting that ASL and English are distinct languages and that closed captioning is “especially inaccessible to the many thousands of deaf persons fluent only in ASL.”
Ali pressed Hedges about the utility of written transcriptions.
“How does it help to point to things that may not be adequate?” he said, asking why DOJ hadn’t presented evidence to show that written means were sufficiently able to inform the deaf community.
Hodges responded that the burden was on the plaintiffs to show that more thorough ASL translations were necessary and repeated her previous claim that the type of services provided should be at the discretion of the White House.
The National Association for the Deaf also took aim at the first Trump administration in 2020 for its failure to provide ASL interpretation during important Covid-19 briefings.
In that suit, a federal judge ordered the White House to provide in-frame videos of ASL interpreters during televised press events. In his ruling, US District Judge James Boasberg specifically clarified that written means such as transcripts and closed captions — the methods emphasized by the DOJ — “may constitute a reasonable accommodation under some circumstances, but not here.”
After Boasberg’s order, the first Trump White House began providing ASL interpreters for all pandemic-related press events. When Biden took office in 2021, his administration expanded accessibility programs and began staffing all press briefings with ASL interpreters. But on the first day of his second administration, Trump halted the use of all ASL interpreters at White House briefings, prompting the lawsuit filed in May.
The courtroom on Wednesday was flooded with members of the deaf community showing their support for the plaintiffs. ASL interpreters provided live translations throughout the duration of the nearly 90-minute hearing.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
https://localnews8.com/news/2025/07/02/judge-weighs-push-to-require-asl-interpreters-at-white-house-briefings/
#metaglossia_mundus
AWA, l’IA qui parle votre langue : quand la tech donne une voix aux oubliés du numérique
"...Dans un monde où l’intelligence artificielle redéfinit les usages, Alioune Badara Mbengue, jeune entrepreneur et fondateur de la startup Andakia, a choisi de relever un défi audacieux : faire parler les machines dans les langues africaines. En donnant naissance à AWA, une interface vocale intelligente capable de comprendre et de répondre en wolof – et bientôt en pulaar et haoussa –, il ne crée pas seulement une technologie innovante, il initie une révolution culturelle et sociale...
Quelle a été la motivation derrière le projet AWA ?
En 2015, nous avons conçu Mbal-it, une poubelle intelligente s’exprimant en langues nationales pour sensibiliser au tri sélectif. Cette expérience nous a révélé le fossé technologique concernant les interfaces vocales en langues africaines...
Quels sont les défis que vous avez rencontrés au niveau technique et linguistique ?
AWA, c’est un écosystème de plusieurs modules : reconnaissance vocale, LLM, voix de synthèse, etc. Chacun a ses propres défis. Par exemple, les données audio annotées disponibles en wolof sur internet ne dépassent même pas 100h au départ, alors qu’il en faut des milliers, par exemple Whisper, le système de reconnaissance vocale développé par OpenAI, a été entraîné sur un ensemble de données massif de 680 000 heures d’audio multilingue et multi tâche collecté sur le web. Il a donc fallu collecter, nettoyer et annoter des centaines d’heures supplémentaires. Pour le LLM, on a dû construire un corpus textuel solide, et pour la synthèse vocale, enregistrer plusieurs centaines d’heures de qualité en studio.
Au-delà des données, la langue elle-même pose des défis : différence entre wolof parlé et écrit, mots wolofisés, absence de norme claire… On travaille avec des linguistes, et même aujourd’hui certaines formulations font débat. Enfin, il y a la question de la puissance de calcul et de l’ingénierie nécessaire pour faire tourner tous ces modules ensemble...
Concrètement, quels sont les cas d’usage d’AWA et ses bénéfices pour les populations ?
AWA se positionne comme une interface vocale entre les populations non lettrées et la technologie. Ce que l’IA ou le numérique offrent aujourd’hui à ceux qui maîtrisent le français, l’anglais ou le digital, AWA peut le rendre accessible à ceux qui ne savent ni lire ni écrire dans ces langues...
Mais l’enjeu dépasse les services ponctuels : imaginons que l’État digitalise l’accès aux services administratifs (extrait de naissance, demande de papiers, etc.). Sans interface inclusive, des millions de citoyens resteraient exclus car incapables d’utiliser un formulaire en ligne. AWA lève cette barrière...
Notre objectif est clair : couvrir un maximum de locuteurs en Afrique pour que l’IA ne soit pas un privilège réservé aux élites francophones ou anglophones, mais un outil accessible à tous..."
01/07/2025
https://www.socialnetlink.org/2025/07/01/awa-lia-qui-parle-votre-langue-quand-la-tech-donne-une-voix-aux-oublies-du-numerique/
#metaglossia_mundus
In this paper, a multimodal dataset was collected between July 2023 and April 2024 through purposive sampling from a field survey of proper households (households with at least one parent and one child) in South-South Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria. The dataset includes 543 validated responses captured in real-time using an online survey developed with Google Forms. The survey instrument synthesised attributes derived from the United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) 2003 Language Vitality and Endangerment (LVE) framework, to capture household-specific data from five households per Local Government Area (LGA). The dataset also includes audio recordings of 108 words selected from the Swadesh wordlist and a transcription of the gloss, and tone patterns of each word, for proper description of the language’s speech system. The multimodal dataset can support the analysis of LVE patterns, linguistic trends, and complex interactions affecting language sustainability. It is reusable in linguistic, cultural and social science research, providing a robust resource for examining language diversity and preservation.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-025-05337-6
#metaglossia_mundus
Learn how to effectively communicate with and accommodate deaf employees by fostering collaboration and cultural sensitivity and adapting to individual needs.
"Challenge Your Assumptions About Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Workers
July 1, 2025 | Allen Smith, J.D.
Sometimes, uncomfortable questions can be enlightening. Jay Burkey, SHRM-CP, vice president of human resources at CareerSource Hillsborough Pinellas in Dunedin, Fla., who is deaf, challenged attendees at SHRM25 to reconsider their views of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.
“When you meet a deaf person, what assumptions do you have?” Burkey asked at a SHRM25 session in San Diego.
One attendee said they’d expect the person to be honest and direct, because that’s common in Deaf culture.
“That’s a great point,” Burkey said, “speaking from my own experience. I don’t speak for the Deaf community.”
Another attendee said they’d assume the person might struggle to have a conversation with “people like me.”
“What if they don’t sign, what do you assume?” Burkey asked.
If someone doesn’t sign and instead speaks aloud, people might think the person isn’t deaf, a conference attendee said. The last two assumptions may be incorrect. For Burkey, deafness came after learning how to talk.
“There are a lot of strange assumptions,” Burkey said, such as, after learning someone is deaf, others asking, “Can you drive?” or “Can you work?”
Other common misconceptions are about a deaf person’s education, Burkey noted. Burkey challenged attendees not to use terms that might offend, including “hearing impaired.” Call someone deaf or hard of hearing instead, Burkey recommended.
Forcing someone who is deaf to use their voice risks exhausting them, Burkey added. “I can’t hear while I speak” and it’s consequently tiring to speak, he explained.
Communication Tips
When communicating with someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, ask the person about their communication preferences, then try to communicate using their preferred method, said Julie DeLuca, SHRM-SCP, recruitment manager for Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in Clearwater, Fla.
Those methods might include:
Pen and paper.
Instant messaging.
Speech-to-text apps.
Sign language.
Text messages.
Emails.
Speech reading.
Toolkit: BEAM Framework for Inclusion
Meeting and Interpreter Etiquette
DeLuca also provided meeting etiquette tips, including:
Provide an agenda.
Have a note taker.
If using an interpreter, give the interpreter time to catch up.
Always say who is speaking.
Only one person should talk at a time.
Don’t schedule unnecessary meetings.
Keep meetings as short as possible.
Interpreter etiquette includes:
Speaking directly to the deaf or hard of hearing person, not the interpreter.
Allowing the interpreter and deaf client to decide the best place to sit or stand in the room.
Using the interpreter to engage the deaf person.
Not asking the interpreter for their own opinions or to explain what the deaf person means.
EEOC Guidance
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance issued Jan. 24, 2023, explained what types of reasonable accommodations applicants or employees with hearing disabilities may need.
Some examples the EEOC gave of reasonable accommodations for employees with hearing disabilities, other than sign language interpreters, are:
Assistive technology.
Assistive listening devices.
Note-taking assistance for those using Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services or sign language interpretation.
Work area adjustments (for example, a desk away from a noisy area or near an emergency alarm with strobe lighting).
Time off in the form of accrued paid leave or unpaid leave if paid leave has been exhausted or is unavailable.
Adjustments to an employee’s nonessential job functions.
Reassignment to a vacant position.
In addition, live captioning through artificial intelligence may offer reasonable accommodation options for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Burkey said that with real-time AI interpreters, “some of the software is OK.” But Burkey added that it’s not perfect and declined to recommend any particular software. “Try it out and see how it is.”
Takeaways for HR Professionals
In summary, DeLuca encouraged HR:
Not to make assumptions.
Not to share medical information.
Not to be unwilling to accommodate.
She added that HR should:
Ask deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals what a good accommodation might be.
Use the individuals’ communication preferences.
Be flexible and open about accommodations.
It can be a challenge for hearing people to consider what it would be like if everything is visual, she said.
Other takeaways include cultural sensitivity, collaboration, and feedback and continuous improvement, DeLuca said."
https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/challenge-assumptions-about-deaf-hard-of-hearing-workers
#metaglossia_mundus
|
Recognized literary translators — Jennifer Croft, Anton Hur, Bruna Dantas Lobato among them — are making the jump to publishing rosters as authors themselves.
From left to right, Jennifer Croft, Bruna Dantas Lobato and Anton Hur.
A growing cohort of translators — among them, Jennifer Croft, Bruna Dantas Lobato and Anton Hur — are writing their own novels.Credit...From left: Nathan Jeffers; Ashley Pieper; via Anton Hur
By Celia McGee
July 31, 2024
By many measures, Bruna Dantas Lobato is quite the literary star. At 33, the Brazilian American has published a cascade of translations, both fiction and nonfiction, from Portuguese to English, and last year won the National Book Award for translated literature.
But one story, she said, was missing from her bibliography: her own. With her debut novel, “Blue Light Hours,” centered on a Brazilian student who sees her close relationship with her mother reduced to a computer screen when she moves to New England for college, she is finally closing that gap. (The book is due out in October, from Grove Atlantic.)
“I wanted to write the kind of novel I hadn’t found yet,” she said. Knowing two languages, she added, allowed her to “play with different styles and genres to tell that story.”
She isn’t alone. A growing cohort of translators is expanding the field and making the leap to publishing as authors themselves: Jennifer Croft, best known for translating the Nobel Prize-winning Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk, published “The Extinction of Irena Rey” in March; “Short War,” by the translator Lily Meyer, followed in April; and “Toward Eternity,” by the Seoul-based translator Anton Hur, came out earlier this month.
Image
The book cover for “The Extinction of Irena Rey,” by Jennifer Croft, shows an illustration of a forest with blue trees, dense underbrush and wild mushrooms. The title is light green and the author’s name is pink.
None see their translation work as divorced from their creative practice, but as seminal to shaping their voices as writers. K.E. Semmel, a translator from Danish whose debut novel, “The Book of Losman,” is forthcoming in October, argued in an essay in The Millions that working as a translator was an important training ground for his writing.
“It’s part of a process of cross-pollination,” Croft said. “It’s perfectly normal for translators to hone their craft by writing books, and I’m happy that translators are also getting to tell their own stories.”
The reverse has certainly been true: Authors as varied as Cicero, Tobias Smollett and Gustave Flaubert also rose to the challenge of translation work, as did Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino. Haruki Murakami has said that translating “The Great Gatsby” into Japanese was a primary influence on his writing, and one rumor — among many — pins Elena Ferrante’s true identity on the translator Anita Raja.
“When you’re working with so many different voices and styles, eventually you find yourself asking: ‘What is my voice?’” said Saskia Vogel, a Berlin-based translator whose debut novel, “Permission,” was published in 2019.
Editors’ Picks
From Harlem to Selma to Paris, James Baldwin’s Life in Pictures
For Epidemics to Cross Oceans, Viruses on Ships Had to Beat the Odds
Restaurant Review: This Outstanding Yemeni Kitchen Began With an Escape From War
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
In 2016, the translator Idra Novey answered that question with her fiction debut “Ways to Disappear,” a novel about a translator, and with two more novels since. The veteran translator Peter Constantine made his contribution with “The Purchased Bride,” published last year. Inspired by his grandmother’s life, the book tells the story of a young woman fleeing the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
And Jeremy Tiang, a prolific translator from the Chinese and a playwright, published the short collection “It Never Rains on National Day” in 2015 and the novel “State of Emergency” in 2018.
Image
The book cover for “Toward Eternity” by Anton Hur, shows an illustration of a moon surrounded by various, multicolored flowers and plants. The title and author’s name is white.
A particularly transformative boost to prominence for translators occurred in 2021, when Croft helped lead a successful campaign to have translators’ names — long buried on the copyright pages inside translated books — featured on the covers. The attendant name recognition may have further facilitated segues to publishing their own writing.
Croft’s views on translation could be a manifesto for the persistent thrum of firsthand experience underlying her copiously researched, densely plotted novel about the disappearance of a world-famous Polish novelist and the gradual unraveling of a tight-knit group of translators as they try to find her.
Advertisement
“I feel pretty strongly,” she said, “that to successfully translate a language you have to have lived in the country where that language is from.”
Croft began to wade into language study with high school Russian courses. By age 15, she had run through the available offerings and enrolled in college, eventually branching out to Ukrainian, then Polish. She has lived in Poland and Argentina, translated a range of Spanish-language authors, and originally wrote “Homesick,” an autobiographical novella published in 2019, in Spanish.
Among the many layers to her novel — meta, mythic, mystical and Colonel-Mustard-in-the-Parlor — is the palpable presence of Bialowieza, one of the last primeval forests in Europe, bordered on one side by a volatile Belarus and on others by ongoing threats to an ancient ecosystem, its mutability an ongoing allegory for translation.
Image
The book cover for “Short War,” by Lily Meyer, shows a red illustration of a map against a black cover. The title and author’s name is green.
Croft, Hur, Dantas Lobato, and Meyer all came of literary age during the sociopolitical shifts still informing the American translation landscape after 9/11, pledging by dint of their career choices a certain allegiance to cross-national dialogue and understanding.
“Translation,” Hur said, “asks what the role of literature is in society and culture.”
An opponent of the conservative South Korean government, Hur is a founding member of the translation collective Smoking Tigers, which champions innovative Korean literature, and a vocal critic of the longstanding primacy of Eurocentric translated literature.
Those convictions are full-bore in “Toward Eternity.” A love story spanning multiple millenniums, life-forms and variations on immortality, the book posits Victorian poetry as a weapon of empire, insists on nature’s resilience in the face of genocide and manipulates prose into something like a new language.
Because Hur, who is gay, was forced to hide his sexuality growing up, “code switching was always there,” he said. Though now embarked on two new novels, he stresses translation’s priority for him. “I still consider myself a translator first and foremost,” he said. “It’s much cooler than being a writer. It’s such a complicated, complex skill.”
Like translation, “Toward Eternity” recognizes both the building and burning of bridges. One reason Hur said he set the novel partly in a post-apartheid South Africa is the symbolic significance it holds for a bifurcated Korean Peninsula. “We’re a country that has remained broken, divided into North and South,” he said. “Though South Africa isn’t perfect, it holds a kind of utopian quality for us.”
Meyer’s “Short War” explores a different dystopia, rifling back five decades to the United States’ complicity in ushering in the brutal rule of Chile’s dictator Augusto Pinochet. Before she traveled there as a high school exchange student in 2008, she said, “I knew that the Pinochet regime had lasted 17 years, but not that the United States had helped make it possible. I was so mortified and angry.”
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Her notion for “Short War” grew out of her determination to turn those revelations into a novel, and, in the course of delving into her research in Spanish, she became a translator. “Translation makes a lot of sense for me as a writer,” she said. “The skills are the same. You have to care about every sentence, you have to be able to play with words, you have to understand your context — except that translation is more collaborative.”
Image
The book cover for “Blue Light Hours,” by Bruna Dantas Lobato, shows a blue-and-white illustration of a woman’s outline in a window. The title and author’s name is white.
Dantas Lobato’s trajectory was Meyer’s in reverse. Her proficiency in Portuguese and English helped her win a scholarship to Phillips Exeter Academy, then Bennington College, followed by an M.F.A. in creative writing at N.Y.U.
“Being bilingual has made me a writer,” she said. “I see stories in between the lines of my life.”
As she wrote her novel, Dantas Lobato said, she grappled with what she realized was her earliest role as a translator. “My parents were divorced,” she explained, “and I had to translate between them.”
As the unnamed protagonist of “Blue Light Hours” struggles to translate her old self into someone new, in a new country and a new language, she watches the way memories continue to grip her mother as tightly as the telenovela tragedies flickering in the apartment behind her.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
The translator Samantha Schnee pointed out that Dantas Lobato’s first published translation was with Words Without Borders, the digital magazine Schnee founded in 2003 that has since featured the collaborative work of 4,600 writers and translators in 140 languages.
From her vantage point, Schnee said, the pivot to fiction by translators like Dantas Lobato, Croft, Hur and Meyer “is just the tip of the iceberg as translators feel more and more empowered.”
Recently, Schnee said, she came across a box containing pages of a novella she wrote to fulfill her M.F.A. in creative writing at The New School two decades ago.
She plans to expand it into a novel."
#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/31/books/translators-debut-novels.html