Literary translation between English, Danish, German, Swedish, Norwegian, French, and Italian plays a crucial role in making literature accessible across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Each language has its own unique idioms, stylistic nuances, and historical influences, making translation a complex yet fascinating process. While Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian share many similarities due to their North Germanic roots, German’s distinct grammar and compound word structures present different challenges. French and Italian, both Romance languages, add another layer of complexity with their rich literary traditions, nuanced expressions, and intricate verb conjugations. English, with its vast vocabulary and idiomatic expressions, requires careful adaptation to maintain tone and meaning. Poetry translation, in particular, is an even greater challenge, as it requires not only preserving meaning but also maintaining rhythm, rhyme, and emotional depth. Poetic forms, wordplay, and cultural references often do not have direct equivalents in the target language, requiring creative solutions to capture the essence of the original.

A skilled translator must balance linguistic accuracy with cultural sensitivity, ensuring that the essence of the original text is preserved while making it resonate with readers in the target language.

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Case study: “using AI and literary translation to achieve content creation”:

For example, different citation styles adds expression to a sentence, and also word play matters. A typical translation is seen with the German romatic poet and writer Novalis, whom I quote on the front page of this site. Here, the German original sentence has much more color and tone, than the English interpretation, yet the English version is widely accepted, if you research it. If I keep the English version, the Danish outcome is more like a slogan, a smart wording, that can be used in the media advertisement or marketing section.

German original quote: „Etwas zu lernen ist ein sehr schöner Genuß, und etwas wirklich zu können ist die Quelle der Wohlbehaglichkeit.“ [Novalis]

Danish translation of the English version with different citation: »At lære er behageligt, men at gøre det er højden af nydelse.« [Novalis]

DeepL version: “Learning something is a very pleasant pleasure, and really being able to do something is the source of contentment.”

“Learning is pleasurable but doing is the height of enjoyment.” [Novalis]

Ok, so far, so good, now let’s try to use some tools:

DeepL/write:

V1: „Etwas zu lernen ist eine große Freude, und etwas wirklich zu können, ist eine Quelle des Wohlbefindens.“
V2: „Etwas zu Lernen ist ein sehr schönes Vergnügen, und etwas wirklich zu Können ist die Quelle des Wohlbefindens.“
V3: „Etwas zu lernen ist eine große Freude. Etwas wirklich zu können ist eine Quelle des Wohlbefindens.“
Critique:
So here, the definite article is replaced by a indefinite article in V3. Interesting. This adds some dimension to the phrase. It does not impose that it is the only source of enjoyment, but rather one of many sources.

Now I’ll try prompt engineering with ChatGPT:

Prompt: Rephrase Etwas zu lernen ist ein sehr schöner Genuß, und etwas wirklich zu können ist die Quelle der Wohlbehaglichkeit.

ChatGPT:

Etwas zu lernen ist ein wunderbares Vergnügen, und etwas wirklich zu beherrschen ist die Quelle wahrer Zufriedenheit.

Prompt: translate into english
Conclusion:
Replacing the last word with synonyms gives a totally different color and tone:
“Learning something is a great pleasure, and truly mastering something is the source of delight.”  [Novalis]
Comparision with established translation version:
“Learning is pleasurable but doing is the height of enjoyment.” [Novalis]
This would be a passable interpretation.
We all know the Nike slogan “Just do it!”

Compared to the more Romantic tones of the original quote by Novalis, the modern English phrase sounds more like a media slogan.

We can off course ad even more post-moder roughness to it, e.g
“Learning is cool, doing is awesome!”

I even let out the “but” for stylistic reasons, so it becomes even more short, like the exclamation:
“It’s legen … wait for it …. daaaary!” by Barney Stinson.

 

This short tour-de-force highlights, how a modern literary critic can denote and amplify different versions, leading to different lectorate verdicts, also using AI.
With increasingly accurate language models, creative writing, literary translation, music lyrics, music journalism, media wordings all are intertwined, and give possibilities for interesting language experimentation, combining criticism, prompt engineering, flow of consciousness (creative writing), and advertisment content creation.

 

Finally, I can add a scientific/logical/philosophical turn to variations:
“Learning is helpful, action is elevating.”
“Learning is necessary, to give plausible results, yet action is required, to reach axioms.”

 

These are just a few examples of how certain poetry can lead to different wordings, that can be used in different fields of language usage.
Hope you enjoyed this short excurse into modern day translation with the topic “using AI and literary translation to achieve content creation”.
I’ll be publishing a more elaborate essay on this shortly on academia.edu > https://uni-kiel.academia.edu/DorianBøyesen

For literary inquiries, please use the contact options on the website.

/DB