Percy Balemans 📚

But while Google Translate is relevant to translation, ChatGPT is not, for a reason that reveals something deep about its limitations. You can ask ChatGPT to "write a story in the style of Marcel Proust," but that is different from "Translate this particular Proust story into English": the latter is precisely what ChatGPT can't do, because to translate a story requires reading it. Translation is a kind of writing linked to a kind of reading - a reading of another text, the original. While Chat-GPT can comb and cull and copy and crib and collage - and to that extent it can "write" - what it can't do is read. This is why it generates references to non-existent legal precedents and fake articles, quotes passages that aren't real, and so on: it is fed with and works with texts, rather than coming into contact with what's actually in the world.

Excellent explanation of why AI tools can't translate.

Source: The Philosophy of Translation by Damion Searls

a cartoon drawing of a green worm with a crown on its head ALT: a cartoon drawing of a green worm with a crown on its head

Waarop kruipen wormen dikwijls in dezelfde richting?

Pier pressure 😐

I love the term "roomnesia". 😉

People Are Calling Meta Ray-Bans "Pervert Glasses" On Bluesky, users quickly embraced the term "pervert glasses" to refer to Meta's Ray Ban smart glasses, following a shocking investigation.

Make it stick.

They seem to be aware of it: "But OKA’s translators are getting much harsher editorial practices than regular users: after five documented errors, an OKA translator can be banned, and their previous translations can be wiped unless a more senior editor takes ownership."

Warning: AI even hallucinates while translating, adding mistakes and references that are not in the source text.

In other words: just having someone proofread your AI-generated translation isn't enough. Hire a professional (who will tell you it'll take less time to translate the text themselves).

Phone AI ad: 'if your friend texts you a question shouldn't your phone just...answer?'
Me: NO, because that's fucking creepy and my friends deserve genuine human attention from me jesus fucking christ.

Of je doet gewoon een paar minuscule witte blobjes met 1 rozijn ernaast en dan noem je het haute cuisine.

I get it. You should have included it at least three times.

Goed excuus voor een paar dagen Antwerpen in juni...

www.letterenfonds.nl/ontdek/liter...

A gothic castle in the transylvanian mountains. A great bear of a man, waring a stovepipe hat and carrying a cane: "Now that you are my bride, you will never leave this castle!" His new bride replies "Wow! Your library is amazing!" He continues "Beyond the castle is a high wall with no gate, and beyond that is a deep. Dark forest with no path." She pulls a volume from a great bookcase, "I suppose it's my library too, now we're married." He goes on "The forest is crawling with ravenous wolves, malignant birds and the spirits of long-dead travellers." Ignoring him, carrying a pile of hardbacks "So many books! I can't believe My luck!" He has sprouted wings, claws and cloven hoofs. "When the sun sets, I transform into a wild beast and soar into the night, seized by a terrible bloodlust!" She sits, examining her books as he flies out the window "Ok. I'll stay here and read. See you in the morning"

'Castle'
One of the limited-edition prints in my shop
www.tomgauld.com/shop

I only do proofreading if I know for sure that the translation has been done by a trusted colleague. So hardly ever.

Three panels showing a bench on a small hill in London on a grey drizzly day. A man in a fedora carrying a suitcase arrives, then he is joined by a woman carrying an umbrella and a man in dark glasses reading a newspaper. They all look shifty and hurriedly converse: "Good." "Very." "Agreed." Then they all walk off down the hill. Caption: Every month, the Espionage Book Club discuss a classic work of spy fiction at a clandestine meeting. To minimise the risk of exposure, infiltration or surveillance by hostile agents, conversation is restricted to the essentials.

My cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com books.

And the people "checking" AI slop are paid less than for translating, while it is usually just as much work, and often a lot more work, to "check" and rewrite slop than to translate from scratch.

Ik ken het woord uit het Maastrichts, met een iets andere betekenis.

www.mestreechtertaol.nl/dictionair/m...

Unbelievable that people are still using AI slop without even checking it.

'Hamnet' Cast Dancing To Rihanna's 'We Found Love' YouTube video by Андрей М.

Happy Friday!

(Haven't seen the film yet, but I loved the book.)

youtu.be/UN-KGYPnWaI?...

Ocean's Three?

Goed werk van de Auteursbond, de NVJ en Stichting Lira! 👍

Boek: Julia Jost, Niet van het Jakhalsdal, vertaling Sarah Hewitt

Sarah Hewitt vertaalde Julia Josts Wo der spitzeste Zahn der Karawanken in den Himmel hinauf fletscht als Niet van het Jakhalsdal. Op ons verzoek licht ze haar vertaling toe. Lees over ‘het boek met die titel’, dapper vertalen en spreektalig vertalen: athenaeumscheltema.n...

Email (clearly spam) about "an upcoming project for a new edition of The Wind in the Willows" They want to know my "primary source and target languages".

I'd like to translate it from Arabic into Tagalog please. 🙃

Presenting the longlist for the #InternationalBooker2026, supported by Bukhman Philanthropies.

Find out more about the books, authors and translators: thebookerprizes.com/ibp2026

When you want to look up something about carbon typewriter ribbons and you realise there's still one in your desk drawer.

Two actually. And correction tape. And a daisy wheel.

Might have to start using those again if AI takes over everything...

Many are appropriately outraged by Altman’s comments here implying that raising a human child is akin to “training” an AI model.

This is part of a broader pattern where AI industry leaders use language that collapses the boundary between human and machine.

🧵/

Today I translated a catfight: the main character is attacked by another woman, but she is saved by her cat. 😼

#AmTranslating

This has been said before but please understand that AI was invented to “solve” wages. Corporates are using the AI scare to depress wages. It doesn’t have to work right or be productive to reduce workers bargaining power for higher wages.

Map of Central Park and part of Manhattan with several locations marked with a book symbol

Following the characters in my book on the map helps with descriptions of locations. Not just using street views, I even found pictures of the chandeliers in the restaurant they were visiting.

#AmTranslating

🍿🍿🍿