Undermining Aesthetics: Poetry Between the Shortcomings of Metaphrase and the Inadequacies of Machine Translation
pp. 143-154 | Published Online: August 2024 | DOI: 10.22521/unibulletin.2024.131.10
Fatima Elimam
Full text PDF | 213 | 94
Abstract
Poetry analysis remains far beyond the current machine processing capabilities, or those translators adopting a simple verbum-pro-verbo direct translation technique. Both instances would be disastrous, since poetry is, and remains, a creative human product that combines intuition, sense, and perception. Any literal rendering, or worse, a mechanical treatment of poetic elements, would damage the human mechanism inherent in this type of text. Software such as Google Translate accurately retrieves synonyms and variances of word types, yet, the problem that persists is the diction process that preserves the esthetic value of the source text in question. Whatever the efforts exerted in artificial intelligence (AI)-supported rendering of texts into other languages, poetry remains an exceptional case. In the same vein, Dryden’s metaphrase remains an unconventional translation technique when associated with poetic text. This paper addresses the esthetics of poetry that are endangered by either metaphrase, or, worse, by AI-supported tools, and investigates the esthetic loss resultant from using Google Translate with poetry. Sample excerpts of poetic works by prominent English and Arabic poets are highlighted, projecting the stylistic and esthetic breakdown of the original works when rendered by either metaphrase or AI tools. Background/purpose – This paper addresses challenges inherent in poetry translation, particularly via computational analysis or word-for-word substitution, and proposes a Poet-Assisted Machine Translation (PAMT) to mitigate inadequacies of machine rendering esthetic texts. Materials/methods – Literature review, exploring the requirements of poetry translation, highlighting sample from three different poetry translation methods; machine translation, metaphrase, and free translation. Results – PAMT is the only way out. |
Conclusion – Metaphrase, as well as machine translation, must be avoided in cases where the special esthetic qualities of a source text, such as in poetic verse, are intended to be maintained.
Keywords: poetry, aesthetics, artificial intelligence, machine translation, metaphrase
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