Metaglossia: The Translation World

When we speak naturally, we don't put pauses or "spaces" between words, yet fluent speakers effortlessly perceive them.
"Researchers from UC San Francisco have begun to answer that question with two complementary studies that show how the brain learns the sound patterns of a language until it recognizes where one word ends and the next begins.

When we speak naturally, we don't put pauses or "spaces" between words, yet fluent speakers effortlessly perceive them. For years, researchers assumed it was the brain areas that give meaning to speech that were figuring out the boundaries between words.

The new studies focus on a different brain region, called the superior temporal gyrus, or STG. Until now, it was thought only to handle simple sound processing, like identifying consonants and vowels.

The new studies show the STG contains neurons that learn to track where words begin and end over years of experience hearing a language.

"This shows that the STG isn't just hearing sounds, it's using experience to identify words as they're being spoken," said Edward Chang , MD, Chair of Neurological Surgery. "This work gives us a neural blueprint for how the brain transforms continuous sound into meaningful units."

Chang led the two studies, which were published Nov. 7 in Neuron and Nov. 19 in Nature and supported by the National Institutes of Health.

In the study, researchers recorded brain activity from 34 volunteers who were being monitored for epilepsy. Most spoke either Spanish, Mandarin, or English as their native language. Eight were bilingual, but no one spoke all three languages.

Participants listened to sentences in English, Spanish, and Mandarin — languages that were both familiar and unfamiliar to them.

The researchers used machine learning models to analyze patterns and found that when participants heard their native tongue or a language they knew, the specialized neurons in the STG lit up. But when participants heard a language, they didn't know, the neurons failed to light up.

"It explains a bit of the magic that allows us to understand what someone is saying," said Ilina Bhaya-Grossman, a PhD candidate in the UCSF-UC Berkeley Joint PhD Program in Bioengineering who is the first author of the Nature study.

The Neuron study showed how these specialized neurons detect the beginnings and endings of words.

Given that fluent speakers utter several words per second, these neurons must rapidly reset to take note of the next word.

"It's like a kind of reboot, where the brain has processed a word it recognizes, and then resets so it can start in on the next word," said Matthew Leonard , PhD, Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery, the co-first author with postdoctoral scholar Yizhen Zhang...

Authors: Other authors include Laura Gwilliams of UCSF, Keith Johnson of UC Berkeley, and Junfeng Lu of Fudan University, Shanghai..."
https://www.miragenews.com/foreign-languages-sound-blurry-to-non-native-1574046/
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On Dante Alighieri’s ‘Paradiso,’ a new translation by Mary Jo Bang
Matthew NisinsonNovember 20, 2025

Mary Jo Bang’s translation of Dante Allighieri’s Paradiso by Copper Canyon Press, 2025 displays the enduring power of this classic work of Western literature. For such an old text, a contemporary reader might be surprised by Paradiso’s continuing relevance. Dante wrote at a time of intense political strife characterized by war, institutional corruption, and civil conflict. Dante’s Paradiso, imagining a better world through the lens of divine love, was written by a man exiled from his beloved home city, and worried that the powerful were destroying his beloved  homeland. While Dante’s specific 14th century conflicts may not always resonate, his efforts to conceive a better world built on sincere goodness resonate—when we think earnestly about what makes a good person, it helps us to be better. Paradiso is a rich text to explore, but foremost, it’s a beautiful poem, written by a skillful poet and thinker, conveyed in translation by Mary Jo Bang, another excellent poet, with a rich appreciation for Dante’s work and a persuasive belief in Dante’s continued relevance.

Translating a book like Paradiso, enshrined in many literary canons, is different from producing the first English translation of contemporary writing. In the notes, Bang lists 15 different prior translations of Paradiso into English, from as long ago as 1819 to as recent as 2008. Retranslations necessarily react to and build upon the translations that came before them, the position the source text occupies in our culture, and the difference between contemporary and original audiences. The translator has to convey the source material to a new audience in a manner worthy of source and audience. Translation is not a perfect one-to-one correspondence of source language and translated text. Translation is art. Sawako Nakayasu conveys the nature of this art in her long poem Say Translation Is Art, Ugly Duckling Presse 2020. Translations can take many forms and approaches, Bang’s approach calls to mind Nakayasu’s passage:

Say what is the largest unit of translation, say poem, say
book, say all the books, say everything they ever wrote,
say everything they never wrote, have yet to write, say
the transit between everything they ever wrote, or say
something larger, more vast.

Bang demonstrates a deep appreciation for the contradictions and balancings of translation, consistent with Dante’s focus on approachability for the reader. Bang’s knowledge of Dante guides and enriches her translation. As she explains in her note on the translation, Dante deliberately chose not to use Latin, the poetic language of his era. Latin “would overpower whatever was being said and make it seem cold and remote.” Instead, Dante chose to use “the language that everyone learns effortlessly as a child because he wanted as many people as possible to read his poem—even women, he said. Thirdly, he wanted the intimacy, familiarity, and warmth that are innate in the language with which one speaks to family and friends.” Bang’s translation honors Dante’s goal to support a broad readership, while her detailed notes convey the depth of scholarship and understanding that position her to do so. In form, Bang reflects Dante’s complex rhyme scheme, terza rima, with a three line free verse stanza that reflects the structure without contorting the English language into an awkward rhyme scheme that flows more naturally in Dante’s Italian. 

Bang’s notes appear at the end of each canto, but the reader need not turn to them to appreciate the poem. If one turns to the notes, they enrich the experience of the text. Bang is transparent about her process and choices as translator, and committed to making available the broader context for readers interested in how Dante’s religious, literary, and historical references, plus his life and contemporaries, suffuse the text. For example, in Canto VI, Justinian tells Dante about the divine eagle from its origins as symbol of ancient Rome to its current role as papal standard. Through this eagle symbol the legitimacy of divine and worldly institutions extend backwards and forwards in time, reinforcing each other. But Justinian warns it is unrightfully used and opposed by factions in Dante’s Italy:

And you know what it did, from the wronged

Sabine women to the grief of Lucretia, defeating

The nearby nations over the reign of seven kings.

You know what it did when it was carried

By illustrious Romans against Brennus, against

Pyrrhus, and other principalities and districts,

After which Torquatus and Quinctus, called Curly

Locks for his wet-mop hair, and the Decii and Fabii

Acquired fame—gladly, I’ll keep it with mine—

Justinian’s Roman history continues to Dante’s present, with Bang’s endnotes to Canto VI providing context on each historical figure and event referenced. Having completed his litany, Justinian contrasts the noble past with the present’s unworthy factions:

Now you can judge for yourself the offenses

Of those same people I’ve accused above,

Which have caused all your suffering.

One group pits the gold-fleur-de-lis

Against the official symbol, the other usurps it

For their party—it’s hard to know which is worse.

(from Canto VI)

Dante, through Justinian, calls out Italian factions for how their focus on worldly honor and fame lead them astray from the true path, weakeningThe Holy Roman Empire and the Church, and harming the people who depend on these institutions. 

For all he moralizes about others’ sins, Dante errs too. He may write about saints but he isn’t one himself. His struggles with the ethical quandaries forced on him by the attempt to portray heaven have allowed generations of readers to find value wrestling with the text. One need not share Dante’s Catholicism, or Christianity, to benefit from his effort. The unfairness that so many people are excluded from heaven merely because they lived in circumstances where they could not know about Christianity, by distance or time, troubled Dante. This subject recurs throughout Paradiso, and while Dante does not resolve the issue clearly, he approaches the subject from a sincere depth of care. And for all that Dante accepts that belief in Christ is essential to get to heaven (See e.g., Canto XIX vv103-105), Paradiso nonetheless includes a significant number of preChristian figures among heaven’s residents. As Bang points out in her endnote to Dante’s lines about Ripheus the Trojan’s inclusion in heaven, Dante’s “implication is that, through his righteousness, Ripheus must have intuited God’s grace and trusted that He would provide a means for his salvation.” It struck me as a potentially heretical notion for Dante that a person’s goodness is sufficient, even without Christianity. And poor Virgil, stuck in Limbo!

Bang writes that translating Dante “helps me to see the world from a new and much more empathetic perspective.” Conveying some of her motivation moving in line with his.

Consider, Reader, if what’s beginning here

Didn’t go any further, how you’d be left

With an anguished craving to know more,

And you’ll appreciate for yourself how much

I wanted to find out about their situation

As soon as they appeared before my eyes.

(from Canto V)

This passage describes fictional Dante’s motive to learn more. Bang in her notes points out that some scholars say that, by this direct address to the reader, Dante “heightens the empathic relationship between reader and text.” This relationship, and the passage’s impact, is further heightened because it describes the authorial Dante’s intention in writing The Divine Comedy. By speaking directly to the reader, Dante invites us to collaborate in this project. Bang’s translation, notes, and introduction continue this ongoing collaboration. The reader is asked to meaningfully engage with Dante’s successes and failures, not passively accept his conclusions.

One flaw that stood out to me, and Bang, was Dante’s struggle with the concept of predestination, characterized both by the religious doctrinal question (Bang’s focus), and Dante’s historical approach. It’s an easy trap to see one’s present as the natural and necessary end goal of all that came before it. In Paradiso Dante interprets past events by how they connect and justify his present. For example, in the passage from Canto VI, cited above, Dante’s Justinian explains Roman history and castigates the factional conflicts of Dante’s Italy. A modern reader will be accustomed to a version of Roman history that treats a succession of global hegemonies as a natural process, falling into a similar trap.

As a contemporary, Jewish reader, I was struck when Dante, speaking of the crucifixion in Canto VII, says “That one death suited God and the Sanhedrin; / With it, the earth shook and Heaven opened.” With the crucifixion as crux of Dante’s history, all that came before was always leading to it and an inevitable Jewish culpability. In her note to these lines, Bang connects this scene to Inferno and Dante’s encounter with “Caiaphas, the Roman-appointed priest who chaired the Sanhedrin (Jewish Council), explaining that Caiaphas argued that if Jesus were perceived as a Jewish political threat by the Romans, all the Jews might suffer and, therefore, it was ‘expedient, for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not’ (John 11:50).”

But, Bang continues “However Dante or the Gospels might frame the Crucifixion, Christ was a victim of anti-Jewish violence by Roman Gentiles (non-Jews). The New Testament’s persistence in placing the blame for Christ’s death on the Jews has given rise to centuries of anti-Semitism.” This lapse is easier for Dante to fall into because he already established the Roman Empire as precursor to, and legitimizer for, the Church’s authority. Dante’s Roman Empire cannot simultaneously play the role of villain of the crucifixion. Dante’s error, blaming an imperial power’s actions on the members of a minority group involved, and conflating specific politically powerful people with their entire ethnic group, are common. By connecting the dots and criticizing the conclusion, Bang shows her strength as translator.

It’s challenging to approach a work of this scale. Helpfully, Bang’s introduction acts as paratextual “ladder”— a summarizing prose poem positioning the reader as the Dante of Paradiso. This interpretative scaffolding previews the poem’s ethical problems and formal pressures, and characterizes Bang’s interpretation. The impact is to strengthen Paradiso’s poetry and story, not “spoil” it, as might occur with a text focused on narrative surprise. Disclosure here intensifies, rather than diminishes, the experience of discovery. Bang begins:

“You’re finally nearing the end of the Holy Highway that leads to gladness and joy. This after so many beginnings. It was six days ago that you found yourself in a dark forest, lost and ready to give up. The roman poet Virgil arrived, and the two of you traveled through Hell’s nine circles and up Mount Purgatory’s seven terraces to arrive here, where you are now, standing next to Beatrice, Bice, your childhood love.”

Bang does not hide behind impartial distance, but allows her personality and perspective to come through. She subtly incorporates language from more contemporary sources—showing in the notes how she conveys Dante with nods to Beyoncé, Emily Dickinson, Bob Dylan, Madeleine L’Engle, Whitney Houston, Charles Mingus, The Simpsons, and Jethro Tull, among others. In the first stanza of Canto VIII Bang translates:

The world, when in peril, used to believe, beauty

Queen Venus, moving through the third epicycle,

Radiated love that was crazy and deranged,

This phrasing “crazy and deranged” derives from Beyonce’s lyrics in Crazy in Love. Similarly in Canto XIX she translates “Oh earthly creatures! Oh, minds as thick as a brick!” borrowing from Jethro Tull’s album, Thick as a Brick.

Bang delights in Dante’s use of the rhetorical device hysteron proteron, “a figure of speech in which the last comes first”, noting Dante’s uses of the device in Paradiso. In the first use,  Canto II,  Dante describes with wonder the speed of his arrival with Beatrice in the first celestial layer of heaven, the moon, “In maybe as much time as an arrow lands, / Flies, and the notch lets go of the bow—”. Bang explains that the device  is “used to represent the near simultaneity with which these events take place.” In other notes, Bang links the hysteron proteron to Bob Dylan, and to a Balliol College, Oxford dining club that reversed the order of courses in a meal, and even, per a letter from Graham Greene, hosted an entire “backwards day”, beginning the morning with formal dress and a game of bridge.

Bang’s endnotes often explain the depth of Dante’s meaning and references and how this understanding guided her choices in translation.

Hosanna, Holy Lord of Hosts,

Overlighting with thy brightness

The blessed fires of these kingdoms.

(from Canto VII)

Bang explains, among other things, that she chose “overlighting” to convey Dante’s coinage of a “Latinate neologism, superillustrans”, departing from “double lighting”, used by many other translators of Dante. “Overlighting” because the Latin super means “over” or “above”, and Dante’s Italian separates this from the image of a double light a few lines later. Bang doesn’t call it out, but “overlighting” also produces a more elegant poetic line in English.

Bang’s insight into Dante’s holy guide, Beatrice strengthens the poem. Few readers would be surprised to learn that portraying Beatrice as Dante’s intellectual and spiritual superior and guide has upset certain readers since Dante’s time. Bang sees that Dante chose to portray Beatrice with tremendous respect, not as damsel in distress, but as committed savior, descended from heaven  to instigate his salvation (an interesting parallel descent, perhaps another reason Beatrice upsets some). As Bang explains in her Purgatorio (also excerpted here), Beatrice “is glorious, with a candor that results from a clarity of thought. What looks like heartlessness, or arrogance, is the awareness that if she shows Dante mercy, she’ll jeopardize the outcome. She’s not about to fail. Not Beatrice.”

A translator’s biases can unintentionally influence their work. In another’s hands Beatrice could read as foolish, hyperbolic, or mere mouthpiece for Dante. Bang shows her as a powerful, noble mind, dedicated to doing the right thing, unwilling to soften the truth if it risks her responsibility to her pupil. We see this posture of firm, loving correction even in her first words to Dante in Canto I, telling him they have arrived in heaven:

And began: “You get all mixed up by sticking

With a figment of your imagination, so you don’t

See what you would see if you shook it off.

You’re not, as you believe, on earth.

In truth, lightning escaping its natural place

Never raced so fast as you back to yours.”
At the end, Beatrice and Bang accomplish their missions, Dante journeys through heaven, beholds god, and is returned to share his experience with the rest of us, The Divine Comedy—stark warnings about the consequences of our selfishness and cruelty, promise that if we are good to each other, we will be rewarded. Paradiso is the pinnacle of that argument. Dante died soon after finishing it."

https://therumpus.net/2025/11/20/on-dante-alighieris-paradiso-a-new-translation-by-mary-jo-bang/
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Traduire sous contraintes : un thème politique 

"Du 7 au 9 novembre 2025, les Assises de la traduction littéraire ont réuni dans la ville d’Arles traducteurs, éditeurs et passionnés autour d’un thème à la fois technique et politique : « Traduire sous contraintes ». Organisée par l’association ATLAS, cette 42ᵉ édition a une nouvelle fois ouvert les coulisses d’un métier aussi essentiel que discret : celui de traducteur.

 

Traduire sous contraintes : un thème qui interroge la liberté du texte

Le fil conducteur de cette année a permis d’examiner en profondeur l’impact des contraintes — linguistiques, formelles, éditoriales, politiques ou technologiques — sur le travail du traducteur.

 

Conférences (« Traduire sous censure », « Traduire sous surveillance en Iran »), jeux littéraires comme « J’emmerde les traducteurs », lectures (« Archipelagos : deuxième moisson ») ou tables rondes (« Censure : de quoi parle-t-on ? ») ont offert une visibilité sur ce qui façonne la création littéraire.

 

Ces échanges ont montré combien la contrainte peut devenir un moteur d’inventivité.

Comment faire face à la censure ou à l’autocensure ? Comment préserver un style lorsque la langue d’arrivée impose d’autres structures ? Comment traduire un texte volontairement expérimental ou une voix réputée « intraduisible » ?

 

Autant de questions qui rappellent que traduire est toujours un acte de choix, d’interprétation et de responsabilité.

 

Trois jours de rencontres et d’exploration

Ces réflexions se sont incarnées dans la programmation des trois jours. Parmi les moments marquants : une ouverture consacrée aux thématiques de l’exil et de l’adaptation, rappelant que la traduction est souvent une histoire de déplacement et de transformation ; une table ronde sur les mécanismes visibles et invisibles de la censure, essentielle pour comprendre les tensions qui traversent aujourd’hui le monde littéraire et les ateliers de traduction, où les participants ont pu s’essayer à la pratique dans plusieurs langues....

 

Cette année encore, la pluralité linguistique était particulièrement mise en avant : anglais, allemand, chinois, bulgare ou encore littératures expérimentales ont illustré la diversité des approches et des défis rencontrés par les traducteurs.

 

L’ensemble de l’événement a mis en lumière un métier souvent tenu dans l’ombre, mais indispensable à la circulation des œuvres et à la vitalité de la littérature.

 

Et l’an prochain ?

En clôture, le thème de la prochaine édition a été officiellement dévoilé :

« Transmutations : magie, merveille et autres fantaisies ».

 

Un horizon placé sous le signe de la métamorphose et de l’imaginaire, qui promet d’explorer les puissances transformatrices de la traduction capable de faire naître d’une langue à l’autre de nouvelles formes et de nouveaux mondes. https://infopopup.fr/arles-capitale-de-la-traduction-la-42%E1%B5%89-edition-des-assises-met-les-contraintes-au-coeur-des-reflexions/

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""Traduire sous contraintes", le thème très politique des 42e Assises de la traduction littéraire à Arles

 

Pendant trois jours, les 42e Assises de la traduction littéraire, portées par l’association Atlas, s’installent à la chapelle du Méjan, à l’espace Van Gogh ou encore au musée départemental Arles antique.

 

Censure, oppression, exil, intelligence artificielle, le métier de traducteur peut se confronter à différentes entraves. Du 7 au 9 novembre, la 42e édition des Assises de la traduction littéraire d’Arles s’annonce très politique.

Parmi les doyens des rendez-vous culturels arlésiens, les Assises de la traduction littéraire mettent en lumière depuis quatre décennies les enjeux d’une discipline essentielle à la diffusion des écrits à travers le monde et les défis auxquelles elle est confrontée. Une programmation riche en conférences, tables rondes, ateliers et performances artistiques, qui réussit le pari de réunir professionnels, passionnés et grand public pendant trois jours. Pour leur 42e édition, qui se déroule du 7 au 9 novembre dans différents lieux d’Arles, les assises ont choisi un thème aux enjeux multiples, "Traduire sous contraintes", comme le laisse entendre le choix du pluriel.

 

Des traducteurs sous contraintes politiques

Si traduire implique de fait des contraintes, les conditions mêmes de l’exercice de transformation d’une langue en une autre, le métier de traducteur connaît des entraves bien moins valorisantes. "Il y a les contraintes de forme, qui concernent le sens, le style, la sonorité… mais aussi les contraintes politiques, surtout dans le monde actuel, qui sont les dictatures, l’exil, la censure ou encore l’autocensure", explique Margot Nguyen Béraud, présidente d’Atlas..."

https://www.laprovence.com/article/culture-loisirs/70269978359365/traduire-sous-contraintes-le-theme-tres-politique-des-42e-assises-de-la-traduction-litteraire-a-arles

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"Le roman-fleuve du grand écrivain russe Fiodor Dostoïevski connaît une nouvelle traduction, signée Sophie Benech, qui nous permet de redécouvrir la voix vive et moderne de l’écrivain, maître du drame familial et moral.

 

Avec

Sophie Benech, traductrice du russe vers le français et éditrice

Entre 1879 et 1880, Fiodor Dostoievski, fait paraître Les Frères Karamazov, en feuilleton dans la revue Le Messager russe. Parallèlement, il lit des extraits de son texte en cours dans les salons littéraires qu’il fréquente. La filiation et la fratrie sont les deux grandes arches de ce vaste roman, sur lesquels viennent se tresser ni plus ni moins que la question de l’existence de Dieu, mais aussi celle de l’amour, de la honte, de la mort et du meurtre, du désir et de la jalousie, dans une fiévreuse et communicative ivresse du langage et de la confession. Sophie Benech fait une lecture déterminante des Frères Karamazov à l’adolescence, les éditions Zulma lui proposent, des années plus tard, de retraduire ce texte mythique et tant commenté.

 

Publicité

 

Un roman sur la mort de l'autorité

Sophie Benech nous livre quelques clés de lecture du chef-d'œuvre de Dostoïevski. Si Les Frères Karamazov se présente comme l'histoire d'un meurtre, Sophie Benech invite à dépasser cette première lecture. "Le parricide est une des strates du roman, mais il y a également une strate spirituelle qui relie la mort du père à la mort de Dieu, c'est-à-dire, à la mort de l'autorité ", explique-t-elle. Cette superposition de niveaux de lecture fait toute la richesse de l'œuvre de Dostoïevski.

 

Pour la traductrice, le roman soulève des interrogations fondamentales : "Que se passe-t-il dans une société dans laquelle on tue Dieu et l'autorité ? Que se passe-t-il chez un être humain qui tue son père, l'autorité et Dieu ?". L'œuvre aborde également les thèmes les plus fondamentaux de l'existence humaine : la liberté, la justice, le sens de la souffrance."C'est vraiment un livre qui pose toutes les questions les plus importantes", insiste-t-elle.

 

Pour Sophie Benech, Les Frères Karamazov transcende les genres littéraires. "C'est un roman policier, puisque c'est l'histoire d'un meurtre, mais c'est aussi un récit psychologique, spirituel et social", précise-t-elle. Et pour finir, elle souligne que : " Ce livre ne donne aucune réponse, mais chacun des personnages en donne en quelque sorte des petits éléments". Cette polyphonie fait des Frères Karamazov une œuvre vivante, dans laquelle chaque lecteur peut trouver sa propre vérité."

 

https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/le-book-club/les-freres-karamazov-une-nouvelle-traduction-avec-sophie-benech-4583698

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"Writer and translator Catherine Thankamma launches her first short story collection, A Kind of Meat and Other Stories
Catherine Thankamma talks about her first anthology of short stories and two kinds of creation — as translator and author
Published - November 14, 2025 03:24 pm IST
Shilpa Nair Anand

Catherine Thankamma calls herself the accidental translator, who stumbled into it when she translated a couple of NS Madhavan’s Malayalam short stories for The Little Magazine published by Antara Dev Sen. Madhavan was a friend of her husband’s friend, cartoonist EP Unny. She was based in Delhi at the time. For the next seven-odd years, from 1995 to 2002, she translated a few more of Madhavan’s short stories. The comment pops up as she talks about her first anthology of short stories, A Kind of Meat and Other Stories, published by Aleph.

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Even as she came to be known as a translator of Malayalam works into English such as Narayan’s Kocharethi, Aliyah: The Last Jew in the Village by Sethu, Paul Chirakkarode’s Pulayathara, and Ajay P Mangattu’s Susanna’s Granthapura, she had been writing short stories. Kocharethi won the Crossword Book Award in the Indian language translation category (2011). Her translation of MR Renukumar’s Ayyankali: A Biography is scheduled to be published next year.

“I have been writing for the past 30-odd years, I did not have the time to write a novel but I have written over 40 short stories over the years. But, of course, these have to be sent to somebody for them to be published,” she states. 

And over the years some of these have been rewritten, the endings changed in keeping with the changing times. Also, she adds, that she delayed publishing the anthology because the stories, when she had written them, “were very different and very conventional. The nun in ‘Blood Sacrifice’ dies by suicide in the original, it was written in 1997. In 2024, I thought why should she? Because she has raped? That does not make her a victim, instead she is the victim of a social order that allows such things to happen.” 

Some stories, part of this anthology, like ‘Blood Sacrifice’ and ‘Madhu’ were published earlier, in other literary magazines. Catherine, who retired as an associate professor of English, has taught in government colleges across Kerala, and at Jesus and Mary College, Delhi. Knowing Malayalam is therefore important. Catherine says, “I learnt Malayalam in the first 10  years of my life as a teacher in North Kerala. It was practical learning, I tried to find out the meanings of the unfamiliar words I came across. Like all students of literature, I like all literature.”

Short story as a medium
Doing a deep dive into A Kind of Meat and Other Stories, Catherine starts with why she chose the short story as a medium. “I prefer short stories for their focus-driven brevity that makes it ideal to structure the narrative around fleeting incidents, chance encounters where you can structure the narrative focussing on characters. The repercussions of the actions of the characters cause ripples which affect the lives of the others.”

Women lie at the heart of the 20 stories that make up the anthology. Be it Eli cheduthi of ‘A Family Affair’, Radha Rukmini of ‘Standpoint’, ‘Polling Day at Nenmara’s’ Alli, Uma of ‘Tara’ or Sister Anne of ‘Blood Sacrifice’…these are not ordinary women and the happily ever afters are few, like in life. Also showcased is how women bond with each other.

Death of a Diaspora

“The stories are women-centric, celebrating womanhood. Happy endings are not guaranteed, but how they react to the curveballs life throws at them is what matters. Their resilience, and how they confront their struggles is celebrated in these stories! Like how Sister Anne informs Dr. Malhotra (in ‘Blood Sacrifice’) of her willingness to register a complaint about her rape. She asks ‘why delay it?’... That is the resilience I want to portray.”

The themes pivot othering, she reveals. “There are various kinds of othering which is based on prejudice or born out of a sense of privilege, like in stories such as ‘A Kind of Meat’, ‘Polling Day at Nenmara’, ‘Devayani’, ‘Madhu’ and ‘Ellunda’.”

We see in these stories various kinds of biases — based on diet, age-old casteism and class-based. The stories resonate because we, at some point in our lives, would have had these thoughts. The introspection it forces is discomfiting for, chances are, we will see ourselves in some of the protagonists.

Toxic family structures
Toxic family structures are another recurring theme, patriarchy and its many manifestations find a telling including the one where, in Catherine’s words, “toxic family structures where relationships are transactional like in ‘Upma for Breakfast’, where there is othering also; of the child. These shatter family structures.”

Patriarchy sometimes ties in with some of these themes. “It manipulates women to be its staunchest and fiercest advocates. In ‘Standpoint’, Radha Rukmini is ‘judged’ by women who think she is not a ‘good’ person because she is sleeping in a compartment of a parked train. There are all those comments about her ‘virtue’ and the dynamic changes when she pulls out papers with the seal of a university which reveals that she, in fact, teaches at a college. At that point they don’t know how to react.”

Another important theme which reveals itself is how the country has changed over the past three decades. “The political changes that have ripped the social fabric of the country, that shows in ‘Burqa’ where two close friends who shared a strong bond are not even friends, one ignores the other. The strongest, closest relationship is fractured…”

The seeds of her stories are from what she has observed around her — of society, individuals and societal constructs. “My subconscious notices things and people. Ideas for the stories come from these silent dramas that take place all around. I jot down these ideas as they come when I am doing chores or other work.”

A question of identity

There is ‘Manufactured Destiny’, about the coaching institute phenomenon of putting children in these so they get admission into colleges that would ‘make’ them doctors or engineers. The conclusion resonates because, every entrance exam season, we hear or read of several such cases. Another story from the collection, ‘Tara’, about a child on the autism spectrum, is especially nuanced in how it is told. Nobody is ‘suffering’ or is a martyr because of it, they take steps to move forward. 

‘Pieta’, inspired by the Pieta on the outskirts of Kottayam, is a dig at the hypocrisy of people for whom going to the church is an occasion to show off. Pieta is an artistic depiction of the Virgin Mary cradling Jesus Christ after his crucifixion, considered one of the evocative forms of Christian imagery, it means ‘the mercy’ or ‘the pity’ in Italian.

“I wanted to show the Virgin Mary as an ordinary woman who cannot understand her son. I wanted to show the story of Christ through the eyes of his mother.” Then there is ‘Ellunda’, about how the caste system works in Christianity.

From translation to writing
When a translator turns writer, one expects them to feel a certain sense of freedom, not being restrained by the original text. “It is freeing as a creator without the ‘burden’ of being loyal to the text. As a translator you are also birthing the book, something like surrogate motherhood.”

Even if the translator’s imagination does not do the writer’s ‘job’, Catherine speaks of being sensitive to the original text. “It is the most important factor, and knowledge of both languages too in order to be able to understand the nuances of either language.” Incidentally, she wrote ‘My Death’, from the anthology, in Malayalam. 

“The translator undergoes every pain as the writer, who can use their imagination while we bear the burden of loyalty to the original. Translation is easy but writing is therapeutic and empowering!” 

A Kind of Meat and Other Stories published by Aleph, ₹699

Published - November 14, 2025 03:24 pm IST"
https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/catherine-thankammas-book-of-short-stories-a-kind-of-meat-and-other-stories/article70270338.ece/amp/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Within recent years, humanities subjects have felt increasingly threatened by the looming presence of AI. Translators and interpreters are currently experiencing the imminent impact of this technological advancement. Gone are the days of badly translated word-by-word robotic sentences with complete disregard for grammatical nuance. New algorithms are becoming so advanced that they have recently forced me to question the relevancy of my languages degree.

Used effectively and morally, these AI tools do have the potential to foster productive advancements. Not just in the field of translation, but throughout academia. However, its current use feels somewhat uncontrolled and experimental.

Of course, a language graduate’s potential extends beyond the field of translation. Journalism, teaching, diplomacy and marketing are just a handful of sectors in which linguists can thrive. What’s more, translation is intrinsically tied to the publishing industry, which is also undergoing drastic changes. Declining literacy rates across our country demonstrate that this issue extends far beyond the language sector. It is something that should concern all of us. In many ways, the current climate only amplifies the importance of the language degree, which fosters the ability to think critically and independently.

More obvious defences for this degree outline the transferable skills of languages alongside their tangible cognitive benefits. The process of learning and handling foreign languages gives students a more perceptive and meticulous way of looking at things. Multilingual speakers are adept at quickly de-coding information, particularly when gaps are present or when they are required to glean a lot from a little.

Although I could write for hours about these professional and psychological benefits, I’d like to delve deeper into how this degree has benefitted me on a more personal level.

A key part of any languages degree is the translation of literary texts. This exercise demands creativity, soul, and human connection. In fact, many translators have highlighted the importance of their professional relationships with the text’s author. The International Booker Prize, perhaps the most well-known award for translated fiction, highly values that special symbiotic relationship between author and translator. In the magazine’s recent interview with Portuguese translator David Hahn, he described his profession as more than just “knowing loads of vocabulary.” He argued that “there is a suppleness to translation and the way we think about our own language we are writing in.”

It is this exact suppleness and delicacy that stems from human involvement. As invisible as they would like to be, the translator will always leave an imprint on their work.

And no doubt, the work will leave an imprint on them. Regardless of my future career, the foreign texts I’ve studied during my languages degree will stick with me for life. And hopefully, alongside them, the ability to read closely, to interpret and infer, and to decode complex information. Already, I would say that engaging closely with foreign literature has changed who I am. Namely, the approach I take to conversations and friendships, as well as the actions I implement in my daily life.

Since starting my degree in Italian and Spanish, I’ve learnt that nothing in the world quite compares to the satisfaction of finally understanding the written works of Dante or Cervantes in their respective mother tongue. And for me, that reward alone makes my degree worth it. I would encourage anyone to read foreign literature, even when it is translated, as it offers a completely exceptional reader experience. It teaches you that literary works can be so fluid, with multiple versions, editions, and translations, each with their own qualities and peculiarities.

Thankfully, this fluidity and instability of language means it is full to the brim of whimsical idiomatic phrases and nuanced metaphors, all of which a digital translator cannot (yet) fully compute. And it is here that I feel a languages graduate has the potential to really shine. The role of intermediary between the original text and its successful published translation simply must be human. I say this because in any piece of literature, there is an endless depth of alternative significance hidden beneath the prose. Some of these meanings are more obvious than others. There are those that require years of critical academic study to be confidently gleaned. Then, there are others that simply reveal themselves to a reader due to their unique experience of the world. But the invariable constant here is that these interpretations require the reader to think perceptively, beyond the information available on the page, by using the ideas and emotions that stem from their human experience. An AI bot cannot think as independently as mankind by running off recycled piles of pre-existing information.

Fundamentally, languages are much more than their written form. I’m currently on my year abroad, and every day I feel so grateful that I can speak the language I’ve spent the past few years trying to master. Once you’ve learnt a language, cracking a difficult translation or succeeding in a particularly challenging conversation gives you such a unique gratification. Sitting here, writing this on a sunny Spanish day in the library overlooking a sandstone cathedral, I can confidently say that so far my languages degree has reaffirmed one age-old cliché… that difficult journeys lead to beautiful destinations.

I think this leads me to the core of why I love foreign languages and why a degree in them is worth it. As fun as it may be to spend the afternoon engrossed in Italian literature or French film, nothing beats physically conversing with someone in the language. Since moving to Spain, I’ve learnt that occasionally my accent may slip and I may forget the odd word, but the conversation is always unbelievably rewarding. I think it all comes back to that desire for human connection. In a world that seems to move so fast, where everything is increasingly remote and digital, learning a foreign language is now more vital than ever."
by Imogen Forrest
November 14, 2025
https://theoxfordblue.co.uk/the-relevancy-of-a-languages-degree-in-the-age-of-ai-translation/?amp=1
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Lancement du prix Intergalactiques de la Traduction SFFF
Un nouveau prix pour les traductions en littératures de l’imaginaire

Le prix Intergalactiques de la Traduction SFFF récompensera les traductions d’œuvres francophones de l’imaginaire. La première édition exclut volontairement l’anglais pour favoriser les textes issus de langues moins visibles dans l’édition francophone. Les dossiers de candidature doivent être envoyés avant le 15 janvier 2026.

Organisé par les éditions Hikaya, le Centre de recherches IETT de l'Université Lyon 3 et le festival Les Intergalactiques, le prix Intergalactiques de la Traduction SFFF est créé pour récompenser les traductions en français d’œuvres de science-fiction, fantasy et fantastique. Il vise à « mettre en lumière le travail de traduction dans les littératures de l’imaginaire et à renforcer la diversité linguistique au sein du paysage éditorial francophone ».

Une première édition centrée sur la diversité linguistique
L'édition 2026 du prix exclut volontairement l’anglais afin de favoriser les traductions depuis des langues moins représentées et « d’encourager la circulation d’imaginaires issus d’aires culturelles souvent moins visibles ». Les traductions doivent être réalisées directement depuis la langue originale, et les ouvrages éligibles incluent les romans, novellas, nouvelles et anthologies publiés à compte d’éditeur entre le 1er janvier 2024 et le 31 décembre 2025.

Modalités de participation et dotation
Les candidatures doivent être accompagnées d’une note de traduction expliquant les choix et les enjeux rencontrés. La date limite d’envoi des dossiers est fixée au 15 janvier 2026 à l’adresse prix.traduction@intergalactiques.net. La dotation pour le traducteur ou la traductrice lauréat(e) est de 500 euros.

Composition du jury et perspectives
Pour cette première édition, le jury sera composé de traducteurs, chercheurs, libraires et écrivains afin d’évaluer les ouvrages soumis avec un regard professionnel. Il se compose de Sasha Boucheron, traductrice anglais / japonais, Anne Canoville, directrice artistique du festival Les Intergalactiques, Gwennaël Gaffric, maître de conférences, laboratoire IETT, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, traducteur du chinois, Solene Girard, libraire à La Madeleine, Davide Knecht, traducteur arabe / italien, éditeur, Jean Krug, écrivain.

Enfin, pour contrebalancer cette première édition, la session 2027 sera consacrée aux traductions depuis l’anglais."

Par Louise Ageorges
le 20.11.2025
https://www.livreshebdo.fr/article/un-nouveau-prix-pour-les-traductions-en-litteratures-de-limaginaire
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Astérix et Obélix font de la résistance contre la traduction par intelligence artificielle

Par Estelle Kammerer ⸱ Publié le jeudi 23 octobre 2025 à 18:00

 

Astérix et Obélix sont de retour au Portugal avec "Astérix en Lusitanie", publié le 23 octobre. L'album est paru dans 19 langues et dialectes dont l’anglais et l’allemand mais aussi le finnois et le basque. Impossible de traduire les jeux de mots et les blagues grâce à l'intelligence artificielle.

 

Astérix et Obélix sont de retour, et cette fois les aventures des irréductibles Gaulois se passent au Portugal. Ce 41e album, signé Fabcaro et Didier Conrad, est publié directement en 19 langues et dialectes, mais les autres tomes ont été traduits dans 120 langues. Le plus étonnant, un dialecte suédois parlé par seulement 9 000 personnes, et traduit par des experts. Une sorte de rempart face à la traduction automatique.

 

Plus de trois jours de recherches sur un jeu de mots

L'intelligence artificielle ne comprend pas l'humour. Alors traduire un jeu de mots, "ce n'est pas compliqué, c'est impossible", s'amuse Klaus Jöken, qui traduit en allemand les albums des Gaulois depuis dix-huit ans. "Quand j'ai été présenté à monsieur Uderzo [Albert Uderzo, co-créateur et dessinateur d'Astérix et Obélix, ndlr] à l'époque, il m'a dit tout de suite : 'Vous savez, Astérix, il ne faut pas le traduire, il faut adapter', et dès que c'est possible, naturellement, on traduit, c'est le cas de 20 % des blagues, mais sinon il faut ré inventer une autre blague qui remplace l'originale." Le tout sans que les lecteurs ne remarquent, "C'est assez compliqué, et stressant", raconte le traducteur.

 

Dès que les traductions commencent, "On fait des allers-retours, avec les maisons d'éditions et les auteurs, pour vérifier, parfois il faut réécrire", explique Klaus Jöken. Pour lui, c'est aussi ce qui fait le charme d'Astérix, "ce côté artisanal". Aucune machine n'est utilisée, seulement le cerveau en surchauffe des traducteurs. "Pour une bande-dessinée normale, je traduis en une semaine, mais pour Astérix, je mets trois mois et trois mois où je reste vraiment 24 heures sur 24 et sept jours sur sept dans mon bureau, c'est vraiment un travail fou", s'étonne encore le traducteur allemand.

 

Que ce soit les jeux de mots, ou les personnages français, tout doit être adapté à la culture allemande. "Par exemple, si on fait une blague sur Johnny Hallyday, mauvaise nouvelle pour les Français, Johnny Hallyday n'est pas du tout connu en Allemagne, donc une blague sur lui, ça tombe complètement à plat, alors je dois trouver un chanteur de rock correspondant qui lui ressemble ! Et oui, ça fait quand même presque une journée de recherche, voire plus, ça peut arriver je passe trois jours de recherche sur un jeu de mot." Tout un travail de réécriture, qui permet au lecteur "de lire un album dans une autre langue si on a fini trop vite le sien, comme ça on découvre d'autres blagues", s'amuse Klaus Jöken.

...

Par leur richesse Astérix et Obélix résistent encore."La créativité de la langue, le côté très amusé, les jeux de mots, c'est d'autant plus important que ce soit réalisé par des cerveaux humains", explique Margot Nguyen-Béraud, présidente de l'association de traduction littéraire Atlas. La traductrice espagnole estime que ce n'est qu'un exemple, "j'irai plus loin, je pense que ça concerne absolument tous les livres, toutes les productions textuelles, littéraires, parce qu'en fait, l'humour, même si ce n'est pas aussi visible que dans les jeux de mots, Astérix et Obélix, il est toujours là, il est là, en creux." L'humour n'est pas la seule difficulté dans la traduction, "il y a évidemment tout ce qui fait le sel d'un texte littéraire, sa musicalité, son rythme, ses sous-entendus, tous les secrets que renferme un texte littéraire."

 

Pour la co-fondatrice du collectif En Chair et En Os, qui lutte depuis 2023 pour une traduction humaine, "ce n'est pas tellement les textes qui feront rempart, ce sont des choix politiques qui peuvent faire rempart à ces technologies, ce boom de l'IA qui est largement permis par les États qui les financent depuis longtemps et qui sont développés par des entreprises très précises, qu'elles soient, qu'elles soient américaines, européennes ou françaises."

 

Il est très dur de se satisfaire d'une traduction automatique, "qui ne répond qu'à des suites de calculs", soupire Margot Nguyen-Béraud, "à moins de vraiment se satisfaire d'une très mauvaise qualité, ce dont personne ne veut, ni les commanditaires que sont les éditeurs, ni les lecteurs qu'il ne faut pas oublier, ni les libraires." C'est toute une discipline "qui implique une énormément de savoir faire, d'expérience et de technicité qu'on ne peut pas absolument pas déléguer à la machine." Elle ajoute que des études de la chercheuse autrichienne Waltraud Kolb, cité dans une tribune de l'association Atlas prouve qu'une traduction faite par l'IA ne permet aucun gain de temps. La sortie machine "est de toute façon fautive, quel que soit le logiciel" ajoute Margot Nguyen-Béraud, " Il faudra repasser derrière." Selon elle, "la traduction est un exemple très parlant de ce qu'il ne faut pas laisser faire" par l'intelligence artificielle."

 

https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/l-info-culturelle-reportages-enquetes-analyses/asterix-et-obelix-font-de-la-resistance-contre-la-traduction-par-intelligence-artificielle-3528252

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

Literary translation is not so black-and-white, and understanding this grants us a wealth of new meaning

 

"19th November 2025

 

The courage of literary translation

 

By maariyadaud

 

 

 

 

Literary translation is not so black-and-white, and understanding this grants us a wealth of new meaning

 

 

 

 

In 2017, Emily Wilson became the first woman to publish a complete version of The Odyssey that was translated from Homeric Greek to English. As a prominent classicist, she began her literary translation with: “O Muse, tell us the story of that complicated man”. Reading it, you would not guess that with simply this opening line, the world of classics was taken aback.

 

 

 

 

Homer uses the word ‘polytropos’ (πολητροπος) to describe Odysseus. In previous translations, historians have transcribed this word into English as ‘many turning’ or ‘resourceful’. The word ‘complicated’ rings entirely differently, imbuing the text with suddenly more nuance — who was this complicated man, why was he complicated? With just one word, Wilson transformed Odysseus, a revered Grecian hero, from a cunning and clever man into one with many intricate layers to his story and character.

 

 

 

 

The world of classics is a world of translations. In 1946, Penguin published its first translated copy of The Odyssey by E.V. Rieu, suddenly making this discipline of arcane languages previously reserved for the elite, available to the English-speaking public. No longer did you need a grammar or private-school education in order to read texts of the ancients.

 

 

 

 

Years later, anyone can read any classical text — whether it be the pulchritude of Sappho’s poetic fragments from the island of Lesbos, carried all the way into our modern world, or even hieroglyphics. More recently, the German letters from Kafka to Milena, the sombre Russian novels of Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, and Proust’s logorrhoeic À la Recherche du Temps Perdu, are similarly available. Our world of literature is now populated with stories of all ages, of all languages, gaining more readers along the way.

 

 

 

 

And yet, this begs the question: is there some essential quiddity to the original texts that is perhaps lost as we translate from their original to the English? Do we really get a sense of the whole story, complete with emotions and semantics, when we change the language? What do we lose, that isn’t already lost to history? Andrew Brown, an experienced translator, says that literary translation is not to capture meanings but to release them. I spoke to him briefly about his work — he began as a teacher of language, and has now translated from French, Italian, and German, working with famous novelists, such as Marquis de Sade, Jules Verne, and Théophile Gautier.

 

 

 

 

Some of the best stories that I have read have been translated works. With English as my first language it is easy to forget that that these books, mass-printed and doled out across the world, read entirely differently in their original forms, varying even between English translations. I constantly remind myself to consume media in different languages, and doing this provides me with vastly different experiences.

 

 

 

 

Last year, I started a rather ambitious project to translate Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Translation is the sort of discipline that seems easy to an outsider, but, despite knowing the language for many years, it is still difficult. Being a Latin poet, Ovid was profusely verbose, his sentences were rambunctious (in the best way, of course), and his sentence structure — like most ancient verse — is never linear. But that proved to be the easy part.

 

 

 

 

Being a translator requires creativity, and a harnessing of the art of language. The translator must also be a poet, to capture the essence of a story in one language, and to somehow transcribe it into the next for a fresh audience to read. Not to mention, there is an inherent rhythm to the original form of the poetry that is strenuous work to transmit into other languages. For example, Metamorphoses is written in dactylic hexameter, the same meter used in epic poems like The Odyssey.

 

 

 

 

Then there is the problem of word choice. When translating the story of Phaethon, I was stuck with how to translate Latin words when there was no corresponding English. For instance, were the mermaids’ hair sea-green, or youthful and blossoming (viridis)? Did the palace of the sun-god look awash with fire or with garnet (pyropo)? Suddenly there is so much pressure on the translator’s shoulders to do the original writer justice while also making the words comprehensible to a modern audience.

 

 

 

 

This is similar in many works of literature such as Machiavelli’s The Prince, where the reigning dogma is that of maximising what he calls ‘virtù’. This word is widely translated as ‘virtue’ for want of a better, singular English word to sum it up. But it does not really mean virtue at all, in fact carrying with it the meaning of having exceptional ambition, adroitness, and cunning in order to maintain your social standing or to get to where you’d like to be (hence the term Machiavellian). ‘Virtù’ is not ‘virtue’, but something much more powerful and layered, that coloured Machiavelli’s philosophies and the cutthroat society of 15th-century Florentine politics.

 

 

 

 

It all harkens back to what my grandfather says — languages are colour, and our words should be colourful. We greatly underappreciate the work of translators, particularly when our bookshelves are flooded with novels from sundry origins, and we underestimate how much there is for us to gain when we turn back to the original form of these novels.

 

 

 

 

Even if you don’t understand Arabic, hearing the poetry of Nizar Qabbani read aloud, the way the vowels and throaty consonants of Arabic form themselves into mellifluous, romantic syllables, feels like music. It’s the same for any other language — the bounce of Italian syllables, the ‘t’s and ‘s’s of Russian, tonal Mandarin. Memorising The Iliad or The Odyssey in its original form provides you with an altogether different feel of how it would have been recited in centuries long ago, when poetry was passed down orally, when stories were entertainment at dinner parties, when prose was performed like songs. The way that the words sit on your tongue is entirely different.

 

 

 

 

Literary translation, though seeming innocent, is political. By exploring the worlds of different languages, and hearing them spoken in their truly artistic and original form, your mind will thank you for the refreshing new experience that the dichotomies between languages can provide."

 

 

 

 

https://mancunion.com/2025/11/19/the-courage-of-literary-translation/

 

#Metaglossia 

 

#metaglossia_mundus 

"U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze to Launch Laureateship with Inaugural Reading, Translation Programs

U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze will open his tenure in December with a workshop and reading focused on poetry translation at Queens College of the City University of New York, in the borough where he grew up, followed by his inaugural reading at the Library of Congress on Dec. 11 (rescheduled from October) and two poetry translation workshops in Sze’s hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in early January.

Sze plans to engage with students and the public in a series of readings and workshops focused on translating poetry originally written in other languages during his laureateship. Translation is an important way Sze learned to write poetry, he has said. Queens College, located where poet Walt Whitman once taught in a one-room school house, offers an MFA in creative writing and literary translation. The borough is also known as one of the most linguistically."
https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/u.s.-poet-laureate-arthur-sze-to-launch-laureateship-with-inaugural-reading--translation-programs/s/b16f1aa4-542f-4a7c-90ae-2a5b69e5e46a
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"“Translators must become writers”: Salma in conversation with Kavitha Muralidharan

Tamil writer and MP Salma spoke about the creative and emotional depth involved in translation during a conversation with journalist Kavitha Muralidharan at The Hindu office. She highlighted how Tamil’s unique idioms and cultural nuances challenge translators, yet allow her stories, often centred on Muslim women, to reach global audiences. Salma reflected on the fear she faced after publishing her debut novel, and how translations helped her voice resonate beyond Tamil Nadu. She emphasised that translation is not just linguistic transfer, but a creative act shaped by the translator’s own understanding and sensitivity."

https://www.thehindu.com/videos/translators-must-become-writers-salma-in-conversation-with-kavitha-muralidharan/article70183652.ece

#Metaglossia 

• #metaglossia_mundus 

Previous studies have tried to train moderately sized translation-tailored large language models by fine-tuning on translation data, yet when dealing with zero-shot translation directions not present in the fine-tuning data, these models often ignore instructions and produce off-target translations in the wrong language, a problem that remains unsolved.

"Newswise — Large language models exhibit remarkable capabilities in various natural language processing tasks such as machine translation, but the large number of parameters leads to significant inference costs. Previous studies have tried to train moderately sized translation-tailored large language models by fine-tuning on translation data, yet when dealing with zero-shot translation directions not present in the fine-tuning data, these models often ignore instructions and produce off-target translations in the wrong language, a problem that remains unsolved.

 

To address this issue, a research team from institutions including China University of Petroleum (East China), University of Sydney, JD Explore Academy, and Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University jointly conducted a study entitled "Building accurate translation-tailored large language models with language-aware instruction tuning". They designed a two-stage fine-tuning algorithm to enhance the instruction-following ability of translation-tailored large language models, especially in maintaining accurate translation directions. In the first stage, the models are fine-tuned on translation data to develop basic translation capabilities. In the second stage, instruction-conflicting samples are constructed by randomly replacing correct instructions with incorrect ones, and an additional unlikelihood loss is introduced to reduce the probability of the model generating outputs for these conflicting samples.

 

Experiments were conducted on two benchmarks using LLaMA 2 and LLaMA 3 models, covering 16 zero-shot translation directions. The results show that compared with the competitive baseline of translation-fine-tuned LLaMA, this method can effectively reduce the off-target translation ratio by up to 62.4 percentage points, thereby improving translation quality by up to 9.7 in bilingual evaluation understudy. Further analysis indicates that the method can preserve the model's performance in other tasks such as supervised translation and general tasks.

 

The paper "Building accurate translation-tailored large language models with language-aware instruction tuning" is authored by Changtong ZAN, Liang DING, Li SHEN, Yibing ZHAN, Xinghao YANG, and Weifeng LIU. Full text of the open access paper: https://doi.org/10.1631/FITEE.2400458.";

https://www.newswise.com/articles/building-accurate-translation-tailored-large-language-models-with-language-aware-instruction-tuning

#Metaglossia

#metaglossia_mundus

 

Large language models exhibit remarkable capabilities in various natural language processing tasks such as machine translation, but the large number of parameters leads to significant inference costs.

Animal Farm and 1984 will both be published in Welsh for the first time.

 

"Two classic novels by George Orwell have been translated into Welsh for the first time.

 

Animal Farm, a 1945 political allegory inspired by the Russian Revolution, is set in north-west Wales in the Welsh edition, Foel yr Anifeiliaid, with Orwell's classic characters given Welsh names to add authenticity.

 

Mil Naw Wyth Deg Pedwar, or 1984, Orwell's vision of a bleak totalitarian future, published in 1949, contains a Welsh version of Newspeak, the novel's fictional language.

 

Both books remain "seminal works with timeless relevance", said Welsh book publisher Melin Bapur, and feel "particularly relevant now in an age of 'alternative facts', AI, and misinformation".

 

Would Orwell want to adorn the BBC?

The little-known Welsh writer who was a Nobel nominee

Welsh books 'need Michael Sheen-style champion'

Animal Farm's simple and direct English prose lent itself to a Welsh translation because the Welsh language is "straightforward" and "concrete", said translator Anna Gruffydd.

 

"Any kind of word play is a nightmare for a translator because it's not going to translate like that, so you've somehow always got to find a way around that," she said.

 

Having previously translated works including Albert Camus' La Peste and Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman, she described it as "a pleasure to do".

 

She gave Orwell's famous characters - which include Napoleon, Old Major and Snowball - new names suited to the landscape.

 

"I didn't see any virtue in not translating everything, because it's an allegory... It's just any farm anywhere," Ms Gruffydd said.

 

Her translation, written in the dialect of north-west Wales, also reworks the title to Foel yr Anifeiliaid to make it more "balanced", she said.

 

Foel or "bare hill" in Welsh is a word often included in Welsh farm names rather than a literal translation of the English word farm.

 

"The alliteration between the f and l in 'foel' and 'anifeiliaid' made it a more pleasant-sounding title," said Ms Gruffydd.

 

 

Melin Bapur Books/Rowynn Ellis/Massimo Carulli

Melin Bapur Books has published the two works by George Orwell simultaneously

Adam Pearce, who founded Melin Bapur and translated 1984 into Welsh, agreed Orwell's "plain, straightforward English lends itself well to literary Welsh".

 

He added that the "real challenge" in 1984's translation was getting Newspeak - simplified language developed by The Party to control thought - to work in Welsh.

 

"Welsh grammar is fundamentally different to English, so getting Newspeak to work and translating Orwell's Principles of Newspeak essay was by far the hardest part of the book," he said.

 

Both translations were published together and Mr Pearce said many readers would likely have read the original, but said a translation offers "a new perspective and a unique voice".

 

He also said he disagreed with the idea that "there is no market for translations into Welsh from English" because people "can just read the originals".

 

"I think this fundamentally misunderstands all the various reasons why someone might want to read a book in the first place, especially a book in Welsh," he said.

 

Mr Pearce has previously translated Tolkien's The Hobbit from English into Welsh and said that while translations into Welsh are comparatively rare, sales show there is an appetite to read these classics in the language.

 

"With a minority language like Welsh you also have people who maybe like the idea of reading in Welsh, but don't know where to start because Welsh literature is an unfamiliar domain to them," he said."

28 October 2025

Antonia Matthews

BBC Wales

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg4w1vel6no

#Metaglossia

#metaglossia_mundus

"Lassané Romba, titulaire d’une licence en études germaniques obtenue à l’Université Joseph-Ki-Zerbo, a présenté l’écriture « ROMBA ». Un syllabaire entièrement conçu pour répondre aux défis de transcription des langues nationales africaines, notamment celles à tons et à classes. Fruit d’une recherche entamée en 2009, ce système innovant a été finalisé en 2025.

Contrairement aux alphabets classiques, dont l’alphabet latin utilise actuellement où chaque lettre représente un son unique, l’écriture ROMBA fonctionne par syllabes. Chaque symbole correspond à une syllabe complète, explique Lassané Romba.

Ce choix permet de mieux transcrire les langues à tons, où la moindre variation dans la prononciation d’une syllabe peut modifier le sens du mot. Selon Lassané Romba, les alphabets existants peinent à restituer fidèlement ces nuances sonores.

L’écriture « ROMBA »
« Les alphabets ont des limites dans la transcription phonétique d’une langue à tons. Par contre, les syllabaires, comme le ROMBA a été inventé pour résoudre la question. Il est beaucoup plus adapté à la transcription d’une langue à tons et à classes », explique-t-il. Il précise que « tout le monde peut l’utiliser, même en dehors du Burkina Faso, pourvu que la langue soit une langue à tons ou à classes ».

Issu de l’imaginaire culturel burkinabè, le syllabaire ROMBA puise son inspiration dans des objets, des images et des symboles du quotidien. Ces éléments ont progressivement été stylisés pour aboutir à un ensemble de consonnes de base. Si l’écriture ROMBA n’est directement calquée sur aucun autre système, l’inventeur reconnaît une influence générale de la culture éthiopienne dans son approche.

Le système est déjà en phase de vulgarisation. « Au stade actuel, le processus d’invention est terminé et c’est la phase de vulgarisation et de présentation », souligne Lassané Romba.

D’après son concepteur, des centres de formation existent et permettent aux apprenants de maîtriser la lecture et l’écriture en ROMBA en moins de trois semaines, grâce à des symboles intuitifs enracinés dans la culture locale, réduisant ainsi l’effort de mémorisation. « J’ai même commencé à former. Les apprenants arrivent à lire et à écrire parfaitement dans leur langue », dit-il.

Lassané Romba dévoile une écriture innovante pour les langues nationales
Pour Lassané Romba, l’enjeu dépasse le cadre linguistique. Il estime que le syllabaire ROMBA constitue un levier essentiel pour la souveraineté culturelle du Burkina Faso et un outil stratégique pour l’enseignement des valeurs endogènes dans les langues nationales.

« On ne peut pas réussir une évolution en mettant de côté le volet culturel », souligne l’inventeur, qui appelle les autorités à soutenir activement la diffusion du syllabaire. Il plaide notamment pour la création d’un véritable centre de formation, l’ouverture de salles de classe dédiées et la mise à disposition de matériels pédagogiques adaptés."
https://burkina24.com/2025/11/16/burkina-faso-lassane-romba-devoile-une-ecriture-innovante-pour-les-langues-nationales/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Cambridge Dictionary has named its word of the year for 2025, alighting on "parasocial", used to describe a connection that people feel with someone they don't know - or even with an artificial intelligence.

The term was coined in 1956 by sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl, who wanted to describe how television viewers formed "para-social" relationships with TV personalities, the dictionary said...

This phenomenon continues today, as social media users form parasocial relationships with celebrities, influencers and online personalities with whom they have no personal connection.

A key example cited by Cambridge Dictionary is singer Taylor Swift, who announced her engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce this year, with many fans talking of their heartfelt feelings toward a couple that the vast majority had never met.

Another is British singer Lily Allen, whose latest album West End Girl tells the story of a breakup and sparked a "parasocial interest in her love life", according to the statement.

And use of the term has surged this year, particularly as concerns over the connections that some people have started to develop with AI chatbots such as ChatGPT have come to the fore.

Colin McIntosh, a lexicographer at the Cambridge Dictionary, said the word "captures the 2025 zeitgeist" and demonstrates how language changes.

"What was once a specialist academic term has become mainstream," he said in the statement.

"Millions of people are engaged in parasocial relationships; many more are simply intrigued by their rise...

"The language around parasocial phenomena is evolving fast, as technology, society and culture shift and mutate: from celebrities to chatbots, parasocial trends are fascinating for those who are interested in the development of language," he said.

Simone Schnall, professor of experimental social psychology at the University of Cambridge, said in the statement that the word "is an inspired choice."

"The rise of parasocial relationships has redefined fandom, celebrity and, with AI, how ordinary people interact online," she said.

"We've entered an age where many people form unhealthy and intense parasocial relationships with influencers," Schnall added.

"This leads to a sense that people 'know' those they form parasocial bonds with, can trust them and even to extreme forms of loyalty..."

Cambridge Dictionary also highlighted a number of other words that it said have had a "significant impact" this year.

Among their number is "slop", defined as "content on the internet that is of very low quality, especially when it is created by artificial intelligence," as well as "memeify," or "to turn an event, image, person, etc. into a meme."

And the dictionary added 6000 new words this year, with notable newbies including "delulu", "skibidi" and "tradwife.""
https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/culture/cambridge-dictionary-s-2025-word-of-the-year-captures-an-unhealthy-modern-phenomenon
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

One grant will facilitate the adoption of underrepresented languages in new technologies; the other will train students in research methods related to conducting field work in those languages.

 

"The two-year BCS grant provides $268,000 in funding to create automatic speech recognition systems that can transcribe oral data from Mauritian Creole, spoken predominantly in communities on the island off the west African coast and Guadeloupean and Martiniquan Creole, two languages spoken on islands in the Caribbean.

 

These tools would replace the time-consuming task of manual transcription, which is largely responsible for their omission from many current devices.

 

“I call these ‘critical languages’ because we’re talking about data and resources that are absent from what’s being used and developed in all kinds of AI technologies. We have data on European languages, but not for these underrepresented languages. Developing widely accessible tools like speech recognition requires training data from the target language,” says Henri, an expert in contemporary creole linguistics. “For a vast number of the world’s languages, this essential data simply doesn’t exist.”

 

The OISE grant, a $686,700 project, is an expanded version of a two-year grant Henri previously received. Like its predecessor, the current five-year project is designed specifically for students to gain international research experience. The earlier grant had students working in Guadeloupe, but the current grant will involve five different countries (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Haiti, Mauritius, and Seychelles) and will train both undergraduate and graduate students from across the U.S.

 

The students will learn how to conduct linguistic fieldwork and will receive instruction on how best to write for publication and conference presentations.

 

Each year, six U.S. students will conduct research in one of the five countries. Beginning in the summer of 2026, Henri will accompany students to Mauritius, where they’ll spend five weeks with an international team of mentors immersed in the local language. Each student will have an individualized research topic and will be trained in traditional documentary methods and modern computational approaches to create appropriate protocols to collect data related to that topic from native speakers.

 

As part of the experience, students will participate in the UB Creolist Workshop.  Developed by Henri when she arrived at UB in 2020, the workshop brings together scholars from across the U.S. with students to discuss new research in creole linguistics.

 

“Projects like this provide valuable data while at the same time provide students with experience that can encourage them to continue working with these important underrepresented languages,” says Henri. “My first experience was super successful recruiting students from around the U.S. who later applied to UB.”

 

It is all work for Henri that is driven by a personal passion. She’s one of those speakers — her native language is Mauritian creole.

 

“These languages have been and still remain the object of prejudice. People don’t think of them as legitimate languages, a sentiment sometimes expressed by native speakers,” she says. “My goal has always been to demonstrate that these are complete and complex languages, worthy of serious study. Ultimately, they offer a unique window into human cognition.

 

“These projects can help change the negative perception and raise awareness to the importance of creole languages.”

 

Media Contact Information

Bert Gambini

News Content Manager

Humanities, Economics, Social Sciences, Social Work, Libraries

Tel: 716-645-5334

gambini@buffalo.edu"

 

https://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2025/11/henri-inclusive-language.html

#Metaglossia

#metaglossia_mundus

"CfP: Translations and Academies in the Eighteenth Century: Sociability, Transnational Networks and Knowledge Circulation (25-27 June 2026)

International Conference, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für die Erforschung der Europäischen Aufklärung (IZEA), Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

Organised by Giovanni Lista, Fritz Thyssen Fellow

With the support of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and IZEA (Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle-Wittenberg)

Call for papers

Over the past two decades, the interdisciplinary field of translation studies has increasingly focused on the historical role of translations as means for the transmission of knowledge and ideas across cultural spaces, linguistic borders and political entities. Approaching translated texts as independent artefacts embedded in multiple historical contexts has led scholars to examine how a wide range of factors shaped semantic shifts, linguistic choices or displacements of meanings in the relationship between ‘source’ and ‘target’ works. Moving well beyond the textual dimension, research on cultural translation has engaged with publication practices – such as the editorial and material aspects of a translation –; the authorial identities and agendas of the translators acting as cultural mediators and ideological gatekeepers; the networks of sponsors, distributors and booksellers that affected the commercial trajectory of translated works; and the gendered, imperial and global frameworks within which translators negotiated their activities.

This conference will explore how translation processes intersected with the institutional and performative life of academies and sociétés savantes throughout the long eighteenth century, pursuing a line of inquiry that has so far received only sporadic scholarly attention. Positioned as an intermediate space between universities and the world of salons and coffeehouses, academies operated as permeable, transnationally networked arenas of communication across social strata, where men and women of letters from diverse backgrounds translated, exchanged, and disseminated knowledge in both written and oral forms. Although they belonged to the same sphere of sociability, academies displayed varying degrees of institutionalisation – whether privately sponsored by local erudite élites, serving as flagship enterprises of absolutist governments, or supported by municipal authorities – which informed their members’ individual or collective translation projects. The diversity of their aims fostered distinctive branches of knowledge, ranging from literature, philology, and antiquities to theology, natural philosophy, and political economy, often determining the translators’ priorities. Academies also relied on diverse media and formats to produce partial or complete translations, either to reach a wider public – through their journals, mémoires and printing presses – or for internal use, such as manuscript minutes of proceedings and meetings. As pivotal sites of knowledge circulation in the Enlightenment period, in what ways did academies shape translational practices, and to what extent?

We invite contributions that investigate the role of translation(s) within the learned practices, institutional dynamics and transnational networks of academies across eighteenth-century Europe and beyond. Papers may address specific case studies, actors and textual artefacts; explore how academic sociability mediated the transfer and transformation of ideas across languages, disciplines and cultures; or examine the intellectual, cultural and political contexts that framed translation strategies and processes in the academies’ settings. We intend to keep the conference’s methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks as broad as possible, in order to foster a general reflection engaging with all areas of historical scholarship connected to the growing field of translation studies.

Potential topics likewise include (but are in no way limited to):

Translation as academic self-fashioning or patronage (cultural/social/political status)
Academies as ‘gendered spaces’ for translation (identity, membership, literary genres)
Royally sponsored ventures/ateliers de traduction (‘civilising’, educational projects)
Collective enterprises and processes (anonymous labour, copyists, petites-mains)
Linguistic extraterritoriality/multilingualism (codification of vernacular vocabularies)
Semantic formations and reinterpretations (academic translations of concepts/words)
Reframing travel writing and otherness (recognition, exchange, visual translation)
Replication of experiments (adaptation of scientific instruments, procedures and texts)
Global academies (translation of Western models, colonial writings, indigenous voices)
Political and economic emulation (translating reformist discourses and practices)
Keynote speakers:

Prof. Ann Thomson

Prof. Elisabeth Décultot

—

Submission guidelines:

Proposals for individual papers (approx. 250 words) and panels (approx. 750 words) are welcome.

Each proposal should include a short biography of the presenter(s) (approx. 100 words).

Applications should be sent by 15 February 2026 to giovanni.lista@izea.uni-halle.de

Selected papers will be considered for inclusion in a collective volume, to be published following the conference.

—

Select bibliography:

Bolufer M. et al. (eds.), Gender and Cultural Mediation in the Long Eighteenth Century, Springer, 2024.

Bret P., ‘Le défi linguistique de l’Europe des Lumières: la traduction, creuset des circulations scientifiques internationales (années 1680-années 1780)’, in Beaurepaire P. and Pourchasse P., eds., Les Circulations internationales en Europe, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2019, pp. 323—36.

Burke M. and Richter M. (eds.), Why Concepts Matter: Translating Social and Political Thought, Brill, 2012.

Burke P. and Po-chia Hsia R. (eds.), Cultural Translation in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Chartier R., Éditer et Traduire: Mobilité et matérialité des textes (XVIe-XVIIIe siècles), Seuil, 2021.

Cook H. J. and Dupré S. (eds.), Translating Knowledge in the Early Modern Low Countries, LIT Verlag, 2012.

Edmonson C. and Edelstein D. (eds,), Networks of Enlightenment: Digital Approaches to the Republic of Letters, Liverpool University Press, 2019.

Erb A., Die Deutschen Gesellschaften des 18. Jahrhunderts: Ein Gruppenbild, de Gruyter, 2023.

Feingold M. and Giannini G. (eds.), The Institutionalization of Science in Early Modern Europe, Brill, 2019.

Hahn R., The Anatomy of a Scientific Institution: The Paris Academy of Sciences, 1666- 1803, University of California Press, 1971.

Hayes J., Translation, Subjectivity and Culture in France and England, 1600-1800, Stanford University Press, 2009.

Hurel D. and Laudin G. (eds.), Académies et sociétés savantes en Europe (1650-1800), Honoré Champion, 2000.

Jackson T., Networks of Knowledge: Western Science and the Tokugawa Information Revolution, University of Hawaii Press, 2016.

Kontler L., ‘Translation and Comparison, Translation as Comparison: Aspects of Reception in the History of Ideas’, East Central Europe, 36/2 (2009), pp. 171—99.

Kontler L. et al., (eds.), Negotiating Knowledge in Early Modern Empires: A Decentered View, Springer, 2014.

Lifschitz A., Language and Enlightenment: The Berlin Debates of the Eighteenth Century, Oxford University Press, 2012.

Mahlberg G. and Munck T. (eds.), Ideas Across Borders: Translating Visions of Authority and Civil Society in Europe c. 1600—1840, Routledge, 2024.

Munck T., ‘Translation and Transmission across Cultural Borders’, in Conflict and Enlightenment: Print and Political Culture in Europe, 1635—1795, Cambridge University Press, 2019, pp. 180—224.

Oz-Salzberger F., ‘The Enlightenment in Translation: Regional and European Aspects’, European Review of History, 13/3 (2006), pp. 385—409.

Reinert S., Translating Empire. Emulation and the Origins of Political Economy, Harvard University Press, 2011.

Stapelbroek K. and Marjanen J. (eds.), The Rise of Economic Societies in the Eighteenth Century: Patriotic Reform in Europe and North America, Springer, 2012.

Stockhorst S., Cultural Transfer through Translation: The Circulation of Enlightened Thought in Europe by Means of Translation, Rodopi, 2010.

Testa S., Italian Academies and their Networks, 1525—1700: From Local to Global, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

Responsable :
Giovanni Lista
Url de référence :
https://www.izea.uni-halle.de/en.html
Adresse :
Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für die Erforschung der Europäischen Aufklärung (IZEA), Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
Document(s) joint :
https://www.fabula.org/actualites/documents/131016_859ec16bd97273a501fba9dce6153126.pdf";

https://www.fabula.org/actualites/131016/translations-and-academies-in-the-eighteenth-century-sociability-transnational-networks-and-knowledge-circulation.html
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"The government's plan to expand English-language disclosures is expected to increase companies' responsibility for providing translations, despite the policy's aim of helping attract foreign investors, according to industry officials and experts.

Such concerns came after the government recently announced measures to improve corporate disclosure practices, which include the English-language disclosure obligation to be applied to all KOSPI-listed firms by 2028. The policy aims to help boost foreign investors’ access to Korea’s capital markets, mitigating the so-called "Korea discount," under which Korean firms are typically valued below their international peers.

Observers also point out that further upgrades to disclosure infrastructure will be necessary to ensure accurate and easy-to-understand English filings for global investors.

Kim Dae-jong, a professor at Sejong University’s School of Business, noted that although the policy represents a meaningful step in strengthening core market infrastructure, Korean companies may face increased compliance burdens, similar to those observed in Japan.

A Reuters survey conducted in April 2024, when Japan pursued a similar policy, found that 91 percent of Japanese companies viewed English-language disclosures as burdensome.

“Similar burdens are likely to emerge in Korea due to translation costs, staffing challenges and differences in interpreting disclosure standards,” Kim said. “Smaller listed companies, particularly those without dedicated translation teams, are expected to incur significant costs and workforce demands when preparing English-language filings.”

Kim added that the anticipated risks include discrepancies between Korean and English disclosures, potential legal liability from translation errors and increased workloads for investor relations personnel.

An accounting expert specializing in consulting for foreign-invested companies, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said, "Allowing those who need English-language information to find and access it will help improve the Korean capital market. At the same time, however, expanding English disclosures will place a translation burden on companies, a situation that will need continuous monitoring going forward."

Officials are seen at the Financial Services Commission within Government Complex Seoul, Sept. 9. Korea Times photo by Hong In-ki

The Financial Services Commission (FSC), the country’s top financial regulator, unveiled the measures on Sunday.

At present, only large-cap KOSPI-listed firms with assets of at least 10 trillion won ($6.8 billion) are required to provide English disclosures. These companies must submit English versions of 26 key management items to the Korea Exchange (KRX). A total of 111 firms met this threshold as of 2024.

Under the revised rules, which will take effect on May 1 next year, the obligation will be broadened to KOSPI-listed companies with assets of 2 trillion won or more, increasing the number of affected firms to 265.

The disclosure items required in English will also be expanded from the current 26 to all 55 items and other KRX filing categories, including fair disclosures.

The regulator plans to make English disclosures mandatory for all KOSPI-listed companies by 2028, while considering a similar requirement for large-cap Kosdaq firms, such as those with assets of at least 2 trillion won.

Following the announcement, observers also called for improvements to XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language), the international standard for digital financial reporting, as the regulator pledged to gradually expand its use to support broader English-language disclosures.

XBRL digitalizes corporate financial statements in an internationally standardized format, enabling automatic recognition and analysis by computers.

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the country’s financial watchdog, has been expanding the application of XBRL gradually based on firms’ asset size to standardize the diverse financial reporting formats used by different companies and improve capital market transparency.

Korea is the only country that requires the use of an FSS-developed XBRL editor. In August, the FSS announced that the system had received international standard certification. Nevertheless, a flaw has been reported in which Korean text appears in English notes.

During a National Assembly audit on Oct. 21, Rep. Yoo Dong-soo of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea highlighted that KB Financial Group’s English half-year report contained segments written in Korean.

“When using a tool certified by XBRL International to examine XBRL reports submitted to the electronic disclosure system operated by the FSS, nearly 47 percent of the filings were found to contain errors,” Yoo said, urging improvements.

An official from an airline that will be subject to English disclosure requirements in 2028 also noted that although XBRL has been implemented, its practical use remains somewhat limited.

“We hope the system’s scope will be expanded to allow automatic integration with English disclosures and that improvements will be made to enhance system compatibility,” she said.

Clear long-term benefits
While the short-term burdens of expanding English-language disclosures are significant, observers agree that the long-term gains in international credibility outweigh the costs.

Kim stressed that English-language filings allow global investors to reassess Korean companies’ governance, related-party transactions and internal controls according to international standards.

“This could increase pressure to improve opaque governance structures, reduce owner-related risks and strengthen internal controls in line with global best practices, ultimately raising the potential for a revaluation of corporate value. As such, English disclosures are seen as a structural measure that can enhance the global reputation of Korean firms,” he said.

An investor relations official at a Korean financial company echoed that providing clear information on domestic companies’ strategies, financial results and risk factors according to global standards will enable foreign investors to engage more confidently.

“This, in turn, enhances overall transparency in Korea’s financial markets and lays the foundation for attracting new foreign capital,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Foreign business chambers also welcomed the policy.

“Enhancing the accessibility and transparency of corporate information is vital to strengthening Korea’s appeal to global investors,” said Marie Antonia von Schonburg, president and CEO of the Korean-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “The expansion of mandatory English disclosures is a welcome step toward aligning with international standards and reducing information gaps in the market. We view this initiative positively and see it as an important move toward a more transparent and investor-friendly business environment.”

The English-language main page of DART, the electronic disclosure system operated by the Financial Supervisory Service / Captured from DART

To address the increased translation burden, meanwhile, the FSC pledged to expand support to ensure accuracy and timeliness and to reduce compliance pressure on listed firms.

The KRX’s translation service, which currently averages one day per document, will be streamlined to under six hours, and the range of companies eligible for support will be widened.

“Additionally, the FSC will issue and distribute an English disclosure glossary that includes commonly used terms as well as industry- and sector-specific terminology, leveraging artificial intelligence translation and other digital tools to improve consistency and efficiency,” an FSC official said.

The regulator will also continue enhancing the English disclosure platform to improve global investors’ access to corporate information, aiming to complete a dedicated English disclosure infrastructure within the FSS' Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System (DART) by the end of this year."
By Jun Ji-hye
Published Nov 20, 2025 1:00 am KST

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/economy/policy/20251120/plan-to-widen-english-disclosures-sparks-concerns-over-companies-translation-burdens
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"L’édition française est bilingue : le texte original en anglais d’un côté, la traduction de l’autre

 

Joan Baez, voix emblématique des protest songs des années 60-70, publie un recueil de textes poétiques. Intitulé « Quand vous verrez ma mère, invitez-la à danser », elle y raconte sa vie, sa famille, ses rencontres avec Bob Dylan et Jimi Hendrix, ainsi que sa passion pour l’art et la nature. Ce sont des textes qu’elle a toujours écrits, mais jamais partagés. L’édition française est bilingue : le texte original en anglais d’un côté, la traduction de l’autre, pour profiter pleinement de la musique des mots de Joan Baez. Le recueil sort aux éditions POINTS"

 

Emilie Mazoyer

Diffusé le mercredi 19 novembre 2025 à 17:25

Publié le mercredi 19 novembre 2025 à 17:25

 

https://www.francebleu.fr/emissions/decibels-la-chronique/joan-baez-sort-son-premier-recueil-de-textes-poetiques-et-musicaux-vendredi-5530466

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

"La Commission de la littérature, de l’édition et de la traduction remporte le prix de l’excellence en performance

Riyad, 20 novembre 2025, SPA -- La Commission de la littérature, de l’édition et de la traduction (LPTC) a remporté le prix de « l’Excellence en évaluation de la performance » lors du premier Forum de l’Excellence en Performance à Riyad, sélectionnée par l’Unité mondiale d’audit de performance (GPA Unit) de l’Institut KPI (The KPI Institute), une référence internationale en évaluation institutionnelle.
Sa méthodologie repose sur des indicateurs scientifiques alignés sur la stratégie globale, combinant analyse de données et système de gestion de la performance pour améliorer l’efficacité organisationnelle.
Cette distinction souligne l’engagement de la LPTC à renforcer ses pratiques institutionnelles et à développer un environnement de travail intégré, soutenant le progrès des secteurs de la littérature, de l’édition et de la traduction, tout en consolidant leur impact culturel national et international.
-- SPA"
jeudi 29 Jumada al-Ula 1447 - 20 novembre 2025
https://www.spa.gov.sa/fr/N2448796
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Amazon déploie en version bêta Kindle Translate, une nouvelle fonctionnalité de sa plateforme Kindle Direct Publishing. Objectif : permettre aux auteurs indépendants de traduire automatiquement leurs ebooks grâce à l’intelligence artificielle. Un pas de plus vers une auto-édition mondialisée, mais encore en terrain d’expérimentation.

 

Sommaire

Une traduction instantanée pour les auteurs indépendants

Pensé pour les écrivains qui publient via Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Kindle Translate promet de supprimer les barrières linguistiques sans passer par un traducteur humain. L’auteur choisit une langue cible parmi celles disponibles et laisse l’IA gérer la conversion. En quelques jours, le livre traduit est prêt à être mis en vente, l’auteur gardant la main sur le prix et la publication.

 

Ce processus fluide ouvre de nouvelles perspectives, notamment pour ceux qui peinaient à exporter leurs œuvres faute de budget de traduction. Reste une question essentielle : la qualité des textes générés sera-t-elle à la hauteur des attentes littéraires ?

 

Un accès limité à la communauté Kindle Direct Publishing

Pour l’heure, seuls les auteurs publiant via KDP peuvent tester le service. Les œuvres issues d’autres canaux ou déjà éditées ne sont pas concernées. Cette exclusivité positionne Kindle Translate comme un avantage compétitif réservé aux autopubliés, mais restreint aussi son impact global.

 

Cette première phase pourrait néanmoins encourager de nouveaux écrivains à rejoindre la plateforme, attirés par la promesse d’une diffusion internationale simplifiée. Les retours des premiers utilisateurs pèseront probablement lourd dans l’ouverture du service à un public plus large.

 

Des langues encore limitées

La bêta ne prend actuellement en charge que trois langues : anglais, espagnol et allemand. Et toutes les combinaisons ne sont pas possibles : on peut traduire de l’anglais vers l’espagnol, mais pas encore vers le français, l’italien ou le portugais.

 

Ce choix restreint traduit la volonté d’Amazon de tester la fiabilité technologique avant d’étendre le spectre linguistique. Les auteurs espèrent toutefois que ces essais poseront les bases d’une offre multilingue plus ambitieuse dans les prochains mois.

 

Une IA confrontée aux défis du style et de la nuance

Traduire un roman ou un essai dépasse largement la simple transposition des mots. Les jeux de langue, les métaphores ou les références culturelles restent des terrains glissants pour une IA. Kindle Translate repose sur des modèles de traitement automatique du langage, capables d’interpréter le sens global mais encore faillibles sur les subtilités de ton ou d’émotion.

 

Chaque traduction passe donc par une étape de validation avant publication, censée détecter les contresens ou incohérences. Amazon affirme que cette relecture humaine garantit un minimum de qualité, même si la complexité littéraire de certaines œuvres pourrait dépasser les capacités actuelles de l’outil.

 

Une supervision humaine, mais des marges d’erreur

Les auteurs ont la possibilité de prévisualiser leur traduction avant la mise en ligne. Mais beaucoup ne maîtrisent pas la langue cible, ce qui rend difficile la vérification du résultat. Cette dépendance à la machine met en lumière le délicat équilibre entre automatisation et contrôle éditorial.

 

Amazon ajoute une étape interne de validation par ses équipes, censée éviter les fautes les plus flagrantes. Une approche hybride qui distingue Kindle Translate des traducteurs automatiques en libre accès, mais ne garantit pas encore une qualité littéraire irréprochable.

 

Un levier pour diversifier les ebooks

Aujourd’hui, moins de 5% des titres du catalogue Kindle existent dans plusieurs langues. Kindle Translate pourrait donc contribuer à ouvrir le marché mondial à des milliers d’auteurs, tout en multipliant les occasions de vente.

 

Cette dynamique pose néanmoins la question du rôle futur des traducteurs professionnels, alors que l’IA s’installe au cœur du processus éditorial. Pour beaucoup, il s’agit d’un outil complémentaire : un moyen de franchir un premier palier avant, éventuellement, une relecture humaine plus approfondie.

 

Vers une adoption élargie ?

Si les tests s’avèrent concluants, Kindle Translate pourrait bien devenir un standard de la traduction automatisée dans l’édition numérique. L’enjeu dépasse Amazon : il concerne la manière dont les auteurs du monde entier publieront et monétiseront leurs œuvres à l’avenir.

 

À mesure que de nouvelles langues seront ajoutées, l’auto-édition pourrait réellement changer d’échelle. Derrière la promesse technologique, c’est une révolution silencieuse qui se profile, celle d’une littérature qui circule sans frontières… mais pas encore sans vigilance."

https://www.blogdigital.fr/amazon-lance-kindle-translate-outil-ia-traduire-automatiquement-ebooks/

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

"From December 4 to 7, 2025, Naples will host an international event marking the conclusion of an ambitious twenty-year research journey. The conference “The Bible and Women. Exegesis, Culture, and Society”, promoted by Cardinal Domenico Battaglia as part of the close of the jubilee year, will present the final results of an encyclopedic project involving around three hundred scholars from different countries, religions, and denominations. Women Church World and the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication are media partners.

The project was born in the autumn of 2006 from the encounter between Austrian biblical scholar Irmtraud Fischer and Italian historian Adriana Valerio, both active in the European Society of Women for Theological Research, of which they served as presidents. Their driving urgency was to give visibility to European women’s theological scholarship, often unknown even among specialists due to linguistic barriers and academic and ecclesial obstacles. While American schools of feminist exegesis enjoyed wide circulation, Italian, Spanish, and German research rarely crossed its national borders.

To break through this “glass ceiling”, Fischer and Valerio designed an international and interdenominational project, later involving Spanish scholar Mercedes Navarro Puerto and, more recently, English historian Charlotte Methuen. The result is a monumental work of twenty-one volumes, translated into four languages (Italian, English, German, and Spanish) and published by several houses: Il Pozzo di Giacobbe, SBL, Kohlhammer, and Verbo Divino.

The originality of the work lies in its multidisciplinary approach, intertwining biblical exegesis and historical research. The first section is dedicated to the analysis of sacred texts: the Hebrew Bible (Torah, Prophets, Writings) and the New Testament (Gospels and Letters). The second section explores Jewish studies, from apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings to the Talmud and medieval Judaism. The third and largest section traces the history of women’s exegesis from the Church Fathers to the contemporary era, moving through the Middle Ages, the Reformations, the nineteenth century, and arriving at twentieth-century feminist exegesis.

A significant methodological choice was to adopt the Hebrew canon, the Tanakh, as the foundation, in order to overcome the interpretative supremacy historically claimed by Christianity and to restore dignity to the Jewish roots of biblical tradition. The systematic inclusion of Jewish interpretation in the volumes on the history of exegesis represents both an innovative element and a necessary act of historical fairness. The project’s interconfessional and interreligious dimension is reflected in the collaboration among Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish scholars, fostering a rare and precious dialogue in the field of biblical studies.

The Neapolitan gathering will be chaired by Auxiliary Bishop Francesco Beneduce and Adriana Valerio. The conference will bring together three hundred women scholars and about fifty male experts from fifteen countries across Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. The program alternates morning academic sessions, hosted in the historic Fra’ Landolfo Caracciolo library in the San Lorenzo Maggiore complex, with three special sessions open to the public in symbolic venues around the city. After the opening greetings from Archbishop Battaglia on December 4 in the cloister of Santa Chiara, on December 5 at the Pio Monte della Misericordia, the discussion “Bible and Women in Dialogue with the Culture of Peace” will feature Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, theologian Lucia Vantini, and journalist Lucia Capuzzi. The following day, at the Donnaromita complex, the event “The Healing Word: A Symphony of Faiths Against Violence” will host a dialogue between evangelizer Valentina Cason, Waldensian pastor Letizia Tomassone, and theologian Dario Vitali. On December 7, the event will conclude at the Archconfraternity of the Pilgrims with a reflection on “Toward an Inclusive Society: For an Ethics of Human Relationships”, featuring moral theologian Antonio Autiero, Italian politician Rosi Bindi, and biblical scholar Irmtraud Fischer. The closing message will be delivered by Cardinal Battaglia.

The journey has not been without challenges. The project’s funding - over €200,000, primarily for translations - was made possible through scholarships from the University of Graz, donations from ecclesiastical and private foundations, including the pioneering support of the Mary Ward Sisters in Madrid and the Valerio Foundation for Women’s History in Naples. A significant contribution also came from the Archdiocese of Naples. Crucial too was the support of the Waldensian Church through its 8x1000 funds, which financed the translation of four Italian volumes. In Italy, finding a publisher willing to print the work without yielding to Vatican pressure proved particularly difficult, until the courageous intervention of Il Pozzo di Giacobbe.

The significance of the work goes beyond academia. As the editors emphasize, feminist exegesis has shown that many biblical texts can be understood in ways far less androcentric than traditional interpretation suggests. Stereotypes such as Eve the temptress or female submission arise more from the history of interpretation than from the original meaning of the texts. Reconstructing the relationship between the Bible and women therefore means exposing the interpretive traditions that have legitimized women’s exclusion from ministries for centuries and recovering a memory too often erased.

Thus, the Neapolitan conference represents not only the celebration of twenty years of international research, but also the opening of a necessary dialogue between the academic world and civil society on issues of pressing contemporary relevance: from building a culture of peace to combating gender-based violence, from the ethics of human relationships to the creation of a truly inclusive society."
https://www.osservatoreromano.va/en/news/2025-11/dcmen-010/twenty-years-of-the-bible-in-a-woman-s-perspective.html
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Networking giant Cisco has acquired EzDubs, a Y Combinator-backed consumer startup that provides real-time translation services...

 

EzDubs was founded by Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, Amrutavarsh Kinagi, and Kareem Nassar in 2023. Notably, Nassar had previously worked at Cisco’s Speech AI group before co-founding the startup. The company raised $4.2 million in seed funding led by Venture Highway, which was founded by Neeraj Arora, who was previously WhatsApp’s chief business officer. Other investors in EzDubs include Replit CEO Amjad Masad; Replit President Michele Catasta; Qasar Younis, who is CEO of the autonomous vehicle software company Applied Intuition; and Ben Firshman, CEO of the cloud startup Replicate (which was itself acquired by Cloudflare in a deal that was announced on Monday).

 

Cisco said it plans to integrate EzDubs’ tech into its communication platform, Cisco Collaboration, which spans hardware and software. This means users can get features like live translation in products like Webex video calling and messaging. Cisco’s blog post also indicated that it could make the translation tech — which preserves the speaker’s original voice — available to partners and developers.

 

“The EzDubs team will join Cisco Collaboration, working side-by-side with our product, engineering, and go-to-market teams. Together, we will chart a new course for the industry, one where AI doesn’t just support collaboration, but truly empowers it,” Snorre Kjesbu, SVP of Collaboration at Cisco, said in the post.

 

Cisco didn’t clarify whether all members of EzDubs’ team are joining the company. We have asked the company to clarify and will update the story if we hear back.

 

EzDubs is sunsetting its consumer apps, which supported call translations for more than 30 languages, by December 15.

 

“From launching the world’s first video dubbing tool that garnered millions of views on X (fka Twitter) to enabling real-time, voice and emotion preserving phone call translation across 30+ languages, this journey has been extraordinary. But what has truly meant the most is the support, feedback, and stories you’ve shared along the way,” the startup said in a blog post...

 

In recent months, there have been a few acquisitions in the translation space. This month, Seven Seven Six-backed Palabra AI acquired live communication platform Talo. In July, language localization company TransPerfect acquired Unbabel, a translation startup founded in Portugal.

 

EzDubs’ acquisition also raises the question of whether it’s viable to build a translation focused on consumers when there is more money and demand in the enterprise communication market. According to various reports, the translation services market is valued at approximately $40 billion."

Ivan Mehta

10:33 AM PST · November 17, 2025

https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/17/cisco-acquires-translation-startup-ezdubs/

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

By Wang Ping

Originally Published: November 17, 2025

 

Art by Eva Redamonti.

 

Poets on Translation is a series of short essays in which poets examine the intersections of poetry and translation in relation to questions of language, identity, authorship, and more.

 

In 1988, I walked into what I thought would be an 18th-century English novel class, a must for my graduation from Long Island University. Instead, I found myself in a creative writing workshop. As I turned to leave, the professor called out: “You’re in the right place!”

 

I stayed, sat down, and wrote my first story about a duck and hen on a farm.

 

“You have a story,” the professor commented, “and you told it like a poet. Start your book, now!”

 

I felt a sudden awakening, as if a Zen master had just whacked my head with a stick. I’d been dreaming of writing poetry since I’d learned to read and write, but had never dared to try. How did Professor Lewis Warsh know? What did he see in my little story?

 

I asked Danny, my then-fiancé in Montreal, if I should stay in NYC another year and try writing. “Ping, it’ll be easier to enter paradise than to get your work published with your second-grade English,” said Danny. “We have a wedding date. McGill offered you a full scholarship for an MBA degree. Your path is set: have kids and be rich!”

 

But it was too late. The seed of poetry had sprouted. I stayed with creative writing, which meant I wouldn’t be able to graduate on time to start my MBA at McGill. Danny was not happy, but he was willing to wait another year.

 

Lewis took me to my first poetry reading at the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, where I met Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, and other members of the New York School. The place filled my heart with wonder and excitement. It was a new world, but also felt familiar, something that had been part of my soul and flesh. I started going there twice a week, no matter how tired I was.

 

One day, Lewis called me: Ginsberg was seeking a translator to prepare for the first Chinese American poetry festival in America. Would I be interested? It’d be a one-year volunteer job—no pay.

 

I called Danny. I got a translation job. Would he wait a little longer?

 

He hung up on me, and I never saw him again.

 

That year, I worked as a waitress during lunch, took my afternoon English Literature classes at Long Island University, then went to Ginsberg’s apartment in the East Village to translate poems by Gu Cheng, Yang Lian, Bei Dao, Shu Ting, Jiang He, and other Misty School poets. I’d give my first drafts to Allen and his secretary Bob. They’d go over it with me line by line, then I’d work on the second, third, and sometimes fourth drafts, until they were finalized. I also translated Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, John Ashbery, and other American poets into Chinese. As I worked in Allen’s apartment, surrounded by his photos and listening to his wisdom, I realized how lucky I was to learn from the best poets in America and China.

 

It was then that I started writing and sharing my own poems with friends at the Poetry Project, where, in addition Ginsberg, Waldman, and Warsh, Ron Padgett, Kenneth Koch, Michael McClure, and Wanda Coleman, among other great poets, frequently read their work. With my “second-grade English,” I couldn’t understand everything they read; exhausted from a day’s work and studies, I’d often fall asleep during the readings. But their poems found their way into my sleep and I’d wake up with images for a new poem. The poets would tease me but also bring me food and clothes as they knew how hard I had to work as a student, immigrant, and aspiring poet. The Poetry Project became my new home.

 

At the same time, I was also writing Chinese poems and sharing them with poets and artists from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong: Ai Weiwei, Yao Qingzhang, Qin Song, Tan Dun. We hung out weekly in our favorite restaurants in Chinatown. Ai Weiwei introduced me to artists such as Tehching Hsieh and Xu Bing. One day, I showed a poem to the Peng Bangzhen, an influential poet who helped establish modern Taiwanese poetry. When he published it in the magazine he cofounded, 意象 Imagery, another world opened for me.

 

This is how I began to swim in two rivers at once. In the beginning, they flowed in parallel: two languages, two tracks, two spirits, until the Poetry Project invited me to read at St. Mark’s Church. I was excited for my first poetry reading, but also nervous. I had only about 8 to ten decent poems in English, not enough to fill the half-hour slot. I tried to translate my Chinese poems, but soon realized that was impossible, because the poems seemed to come from a different author. In the Chinese poems, I was a good girl, following rules, striving to look pretty, stylish, pleasing. In the English poems, I was wild and daring, breaking rules, making trouble, playing, laughing, having fun.

 

I froze. All these years, my mother tongue had been guiding and governing me like a compass and whip, telling me where to look, what to see, how to feel and think, which way to go… till I walked into the wrong class and started writing in another language. A new star exploded. In English, I had limited toys to play with but was free to take things apart and make new things without a mother watching or pointing a finger. In this new world, I became keenly aware of every sound, syllable, and word, its history, its living surroundings. And how fascinating and refreshing it was! Even better, my heightened sensibility in English allowed me to give new eyes and ears to my mother tongue and discover its endless treasures, which I’d long ignored. I could no longer take Chinese for granted. Every character opened a new playground.

 

This is the gift translation has given me: an understanding of the poem as a kernel in which a civilization is embedded, and translation as the key to open that kernel.

 

***

 

To translate a poem, I must learn how to feel its emotions and the spirits embedded between words, lines, and stanzas. To feel a poem, I must feel the pulse of the culture the poet lives in, to absorb what it offers: pain, hardship, joy, language, and dreams. I must not take words for granted, words I use daily, rarely giving them a second thought. I must dig into the root of each word, follow its stem, branches, flowers, and fruit, and reach for the light, water, and soil that brought it to life. I must hear each word sing, watch it dance along with the words that come before, and after it; I must listen, also, to its silence. I must taste its chemical transformation as it moves across space and time on the page, beyond the page.

 

Is this what poetry is about, to see, hear, touch, and taste the world like a newborn? As Rilke advised the young poet: “Go within. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart […] Dig into yourself for a deep answer.” Translation can be a way to cultivate one's inner voice, and find that answer. That must be why so many master poets practiced translation: Snyder, Padgett, Friedrich Hölderlin, Ezra Pound, Sylvia Plath, Kenneth Rexroth, W.S. Merwin, Robert Bly, Paul Hoover… just to name a few.

 

***

 

When the Chinese American poetry festival ended, I decided to start a new project. I invited Padgett, Waldman, Ashbery, Ginsberg, Koch, Warsh, Simon Pettet, and many others to co-translate an anthology with me. To my delight, every poet agreed to collaborate on New Generation: Poems from China Today (Hanging Loose Press, 1999).

 

The process of creating this book involved me selecting a diverse group of China’s most interesting poets, translating the first draft, then matching each poem with an American poet, according to the poem’s style, rhythm, and inner voice. I started with Yu Jian. His work seemed straightforward but was deceptively layered, which made the translation really fun. I invited Padgett, known for his minimal flashes of humor and insight, as the co-translator. It was a perfect match as we both felt and understood Yu Jian’s intention, nuance, image, music, and dry humor.

 

***

 

After the anthology was published, Yu Jian turned the translation into a booklet to give away. A year later, at a book festival in Sweden, Yu Jian handed the booklet to Padgett, neither one knowing who the other was. As Padgett later told me, he started reading the booklet in his hotel and felt that he knew the poems. Then it hit him that he had translated them with me. Yu Jian and Padgett met the next day and have been best friends ever since. When Padgett got back to the US he asked if I’d be interested in translating a book of Yu Jian’s poems together. A few years later, Flash Cards came out from Zephyr Press.

 

***

 

Translating Yu Jian with Padgett was smooth sailing, as the poems synced with both our poetic sensibilities and styles. Though Padgett rarely made changes to my drafts, when he did, it often transformed the poem entirely. Here’s one sample from Yu Jian’s Flash Cards:

 

130

 

削苹果的女人

在黄昏中削下一片递给我

我接过来的时候 

碰到她有汁的手

 

 

Peeling an apple at dusk

she cuts a slice and hands it to me

I take it

from her hand wet with the juice

 

 

The draft I gave Ron didn’t have “an” before “apple” or “the” before “juice.” I still get confused by English prepositions as Chinese doesn’t have any. Ron explained that adding “an” to apple suggests mundanity—an ordinary day in the life of an ordinary couple doing ordinary things together. As Ron further explained, inserting “the” before juice transforms everything, imbuing this seemingly ordinary moment with love, and infusing the atmosphere with a sexual charge.

 

This is how I learned to find the gems of English, buried deep in the interplay between words, lines, and various contexts within a poem, with the guidance of American master poets.

 

In “A Glorious Day” Yu Jian reflects on time spent at Ron’s home in Vermont, soon after the three of us had completed the Vermont Studio Center’s writing residency together. In the elegant mountain cottage filled with paintings, collages and poems by the great American poets and artists, we brewed and sipped Yu Jian’s Pu’er tea, a special gift from his home in Kunming, Yunnan. Then Ron took us through the woods to visit Joe Brainard’s grave: a white giant rock brought there by Kenward Elmslie. The sun shone through the August woods, and the rock glittered as if on fire. We said nothing, but felt everything.

 

[…]—sunlight on everything

A white rock shines in the Vermont woods

That’s Joe Brainard’s grave an American poet

[…] […] bears and fallen leaves make way

White like a bone in his memory no words

[…] I touch the rock recoil as if scorched

So cold like the geniuses’ foreheads

Cool like a rock

In this world that burns like a furnace

 

That day, poetry entangled our spirits—not just me and Ron and Yu Jian, but also Elmslie and Brainard—together, transporting us from this world to that, like wind blowing through grasses, like the rock, scorching and cool at the same time, keeping us alive in this world. That was also the moment I felt the “pure language” in translation, where literalness and freedom come together as wind and rock, time and space, body and soul. 

 

In his essay “The Task of the Translator,” Walter Benjamin writes: “A real translation is transparent; it does not cover the original, does not block its light, but allows the pure language, as though reinforced by its own medium, to shine upon the original all the more fully.” A translator must be a superb critic, reader, writer, musician, artist; they must know more about a book than its first creator, in order to bring the content, form, time, place, and culture across and into another realm; they must know two worlds inside out, must swim back and forth with ease; they must have the knowledge and strength to move mountains together, not to merge them, but to bring them close to each other, to make a sacred place where the glacial ice from the peaks seeps into the soil and rocks, re-emerges, and runs down the valley with the most refreshing, nutrient-rich spring of poetry. Translators are magicians in the linguistic quantum world.

 

The moment I walked into the wrong classroom in NYC, in 1988, I stumbled into Ginsberg’s “rabbit hole” of poetry and translation, which led me on a journey of inner discovery: who I am, what I am, where I’m from, where I’m going. Translation reminds me that I’m never alone. I contain multitudes. I am connected to the stars and the planets, within and without.

 

Poet, novelist, and artist Wang Ping was born in 1957 in Shanghai, China. She grew up on a small island in the East China Sea. She earned a BA in English from Beijing University before immigrating to the United States in 1985. Ping earned an MA in English from Long Island University and a PhD in comparative literature from New York University. During her undergraduate studies, she lectured in English...