Translations of linked articles

September 30, 2022 6:54 AM

Should I include links to machine generated translations when I link to content in languages other than English in a comment? These days, usually a pretty decent machine translation is available by right-click or offered automatically by your browser when loading the page. I used to add a link to Google Translate every time, but recently stopped, as it started to feel a bit redundant. But what do people think?
posted by Harald74 to Etiquette/Policy at 6:54 AM (8 comments total)

I’d say yes. It might be redundant, but it’s also helpful.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 7:13 AM on September 30, 2022 [8 favorites]

I generally rely on in-browser tools, so I definitely have a habit of just skimming past that sort of supplemental link.
posted by sagc at 9:09 AM on September 30, 2022

I don't have any such in-browser tools on my primary browser. I certainly appreciate such links.

Tip: https://www.deepl.com/translator is a lot better than GTranslate. They offer fewer languages, but the translation is much better.
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:11 PM on September 30, 2022 [7 favorites]

Another vote for adding the links, and thanks Too-Ticky for the introduction to deepl.
posted by nenequesadilla at 10:13 PM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Too-Ticky: "https://www.deepl.com/translator is a lot better than GTranslate. "

I just an A/B test with a short story I wrote in English, translating it into Spanish. deepl is way better.
posted by signal at 9:55 AM on October 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

There are other places on the internet where people just... talk in their own language. Sometimes with translator bots (which I know aren't perfect but in my opinion waiting for perfect seems like letting perfect be the enemy of good enough) sometimes without bots.

And it seems to work ok! I really like that aspect of those parts of the internet.
posted by aniola at 11:15 AM on October 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

I gave Deepl a go, translated the first paragraph of the Swedish original text of Att döda ett barn by Stig Dagerman, and it seems like Google Translate and DeepL have about the same amount of oddities in the translation, only different ones. I even found the official English translation out there, and include it for comparison purposes.

Original:

Det är en lätt dag och solen står snett över slätten. Snart skall klockorna ringa, ty det är söndag. Mellan
ett par rågåkrar har två unga hittat en stig som de aldrig förut gått och i slättens tre byar blänker
fönsterrutorna. Män rakar sig framför speglarna på köksborden och kvinnor skär gnolande upp bröd till
kaffet och barn sitter på golven och knäpper sina livstycken. Det är den lyckliga morgonen till en ond
dag, ty denna dag skall ett barn dödas i den tredje byn av en lycklig man. Ännu sitter barnet på golvet
och knäpper sitt livstycke och mannen som rakar sig säger att i dag skall de ta en roddtur nerför ån och
kvinnan gnolar och lägger upp det nyskurna brödet på ett blått fat.

Google Translate:

It is a light day and the sun is slanting across the plain. Soon the bells will ring, for it is Sunday. Between a couple of ryegrass fields, two young ones have found a path like them never gone before and in the plain the three villages shine the window panes. Men shave in front of mirrors on the kitchen tables and women cut bread grudgingly the coffee and children sit on the floors and snap theirs bodices. It is the happy morning of a wicked one day, for on this day a child shall be killed in the third the village of a happy man. The child is still sitting on the floor and buttons his bodice and the man shaving says that today they will take a rowing trip down the river and the woman grunts and puts the freshly cut bread on a blue dish.

DeepL:

It's a light day and the sun is slanting across the plain. Soon the bells will ring, for it is Sunday. Between a couple of fields of rye, two youngsters have found a path that they never walked before and in the three villages of the plain the window panes. Men shave in front of the mirrors of the the mirrors on the kitchen tables and women whimpering coffee and children sit on the floors and snap their pieces of life. It's the happy morning of an evil day, for on this day a child will be killed in the third village by a happy man. Still the child sits on the floor and the man shaving his head says that today they will take a row down the river and the woman whines and puts the freshly cut bread on on a blue plate.

Official translation:

It’s a peaceful day as sunlight settles onto the fields of the plain. Soon bells will be ringing, because today is Sunday. Between fields of rye, two children have just come upon a footpath that they have never taken before, and in the three villages along the plain, window panes glisten in the sun. Men shave before mirrors propped on kitchen tables, women hum as they slice up cinnamon bread for the morning meal, and children sit on kitchen floors, buttoning the fronts of their shirts. This is the pleasant morning of an evil day, because on this day a child will be killed in the third village by a cheerful man. Yet the child still sits on the kitchen floor, buttoning his shirt. And the man who is still shaving talks of the day ahead, of their rowing trip down the creek. And still humming, the woman places the freshly cut bread on a blue plate.

You can find the original here and the translation here. It's a text Dagerman wrote in 1948 for the Swedish National Society for Road Safety , in an attempt to make drivers slow down more.
posted by Harald74 at 2:06 AM on October 4, 2022

DeepL apparently won't translate URLs, or am I missing something? They also generate an URL with all the source text when clicking the share button, which is less than ideal.
posted by Harald74 at 11:52 PM on October 5, 2022