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Google Translate begins saving users' search histories to their accounts Android Police
Sunday, May 8, 2022
Saturday, May 7, 2022
Works in translation: Short stories from Ukraine and a compelling novella - The Irish Times - Translation
For thirty-five days, after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, the Kyiv-based writer and photojournalist Yevgenia Belorusets blogged about day-to-day life in a country under violent siege. “The word ‘war’ is even less comprehensible during wartime than in peacetime, when it’s used quite differently,” she commented in one of her final posts. In early April Belorusets temporarily left Ukraine for Italy. By this time her blog had been widely and avidly shared. Belorusets’s first work of fiction, a tantalisingly oblique collection of very short stories called Lucky Breaks, translated from Russian by Eugene Ostashevsky (Pushkin Press, £9.99), should find her an even wider audience. Lucky Breaks is not straightforward; it is as sharp and fragmentary as the shards of lives upended.
There are elements of legendary Ukrainian writer Isaac Babel’s sardonic wit, but this is fiction mostly about women in a state of fugue: dislocated and forever altered by the ongoing conflict with Russia, one that began long before the current invasion. “You can’t really live in this country – you’re threatened from every side at every moment” points out the narrator of Lena in Danger. Language is either discombobulated and lamenting, as in My Black, Broken Umbrella in which an ordinary domestic item is destroyed due to its resemblance to a weapon of destruction; or pared down, such as in My Sister, which sparsely describes the sinister horror of the abduction of an informer from suddenly silent streets: “The pedestrians were all gone, as if they had died out.” Roaming the country from Donestk to Dnipro, ordinary lives unfold to produce extraordinary outcomes.
Friday, May 6, 2022
Pangeanic Develops a Free Machine Translation Engine to Help Ukrainian Citizens - Slator - Translation
Over 5M people have left the country and more than 7 are displaced. Language assistance is urgently needed.
Valencia, April 26, 2022. Pangeanic is a company that uses Artificial Intelligence to provide language processing services. Amid the chaos of the war in Ukraine, Pangeanic is showing its support to those who are being forced to flee their country. The company has released several of its machine translation engines so that people, businesses or organizations can translate for free using its Ukrainian translation panel. NGO’s and Public Administrations can request free-of-charge access to Pangeanic’s API for full document translation or API connection. So far, the available language pairs include various relevant European languages (such as English, Polish, German, etc.) into Ukrainian or Russian, and vice versa.
We have all been witness of the terrible violation of human rights taking place in Ukraine. Fake news abound. In situations of aggression such as the one being experienced in Ukraine, every contribution is necessary, no matter how small. Pangeanic is proving the strength of machine translation in times like these. In addition to various economic contributions to the International Red Cross, the company has created a free instant translation engine. Access to this service is available to those who are suffering the consequences of the war, as well as public administrations that need to communicate with migrants.
Manuel Herranz, CEO of Pangeanic, explains how the company is committed to doing their bit for Ukrainian citizens in this difficult situation. “We are working hand in hand with the Spanish authorities. People fleeing the war zone should have access to legal information, understand it and rest assured that their data will be safe thanks to our combination of MT and anonymization,” he stated during his participation in the International World AI Festival held in Cannes on April 15.
The translation website provides a text box where users can enter content in different languages and have it translated with a high degree of accuracy. Public Administrations or NGOs that require translation can request this service confidentially through the form on the same page.
Pangeanic began its journey in the language industry as the European agent of BI Corporation, a Japanese group, in 2000. After becoming independent in 2005, it has led and been involved in several national and European R&D programs in the field of computational linguistics, pattern recognition, TM databases, anonymization, Machine Translation, and other NLP areas. It combines Artificial Intelligence with human expertise and knowledge in order to offer high-value services. For example, the company is well-known for leading the MAPA Project, and creating its own data anonymization service to help with GDPR compliance. MAPA is currently used by the Spanish Ministry of Justice, the EU’s DG Translation and the 27 national Complaints Watch offices.
“There is a growing global concern about how personal information is being used for different purposes, including monetization” Manuel also stated in his speech at WAICF, underlining how, among other goals, his company wants to ensure that citizens’ data is safe through its anonymization software.
Letter: Dictionary.com might've been a good idea, Doctor - Yakima Herald-Republic - Dictionary
To the editor — I found Dr. Boyd's May 1 letter to the editor interesting, but confusing. He stated that we, in the United States of America, do not live in a democracy, but rather a republic.
If he had looked both of these words up in Dictionary.com, he would have found the definitions almost identical. A democracy is stated, as a noun, whose meaning is as follows: government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents in a free electoral system. Republic, also a noun, is defined as follows. A state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.
Whether you call it one or the other, its power rests with, we, the people, through representation. When you vote, do it intelligently. Your voice counts.
PAMELA SCHMIDT
Yakima
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Leading advocate for translation of literature from Wales long-listed for prestigious prize - Nation.Cymru - Translation
Alexandra Büchler who has been a tireless advocate for the translation of literature from Wales in both English and Welsh into languages across Europe through her role at Literature Across Frontiers has been long-listed for a prestigious translation prize.
Her translation of Czech poet Kateřina Rudčenková’s collection Dream of a Journey has been long-listed for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize.
The collection is an edited selection by Buchler from four books of poetry from Rudčenková’s work.
Kateřina Rudčenková has won prizes as a poet and playwright in Czech and her work has been translated in many European languages but this is the first time a full collection has appeared in English.
She is one of the most translated Czech women writers, whose early poems secured her a place in Arc Publications’ A Fine Line: New Poetry from Eastern and Central Europe and Six Czech Poets in the mid-2000s. Primarily known as a poet, she has also published a collection of short stories and written several plays.
Cultural importance
The Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize is for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language. It aims to honour the craft of translation, and to recognise its cultural importance. It was founded by Lord Weidenfeld and is supported by New College, The Queen’s College, and St Anne’s College, Oxford.
Alexandra Büchler is director of the Literature Across Frontiers, as well as editor and translator of prose, poetry and texts on art and architecture between her native Czech, English and Greek, with close to thirty publications to her name.
Literature Across Frontiers (LAF), the European Platform for Literary Exchange, Translation and Policy Debate, was established in 2001 with support from the then Culture Programme of the European Union.
Their aim is to develop intercultural dialogue through literature and translation, and highlight less translated literatures.
They are based in Aberystwyth, and work in partnership with a range of organisations and individuals across Europe and beyond, to foster literary diversity and create opportunities for new connections and collaborations.
Responding to her selection, Büchler said: “I’m thrilled and honoured to be long-listed for this important prize that spotlights the work of literary translators, as well as of independent publishers who bring literature in translation to English-language readers. I’d like to thank the Czech Ministry of Culture for their support that made it possible for this and many other works of contemporary Czech writing to travel.”
Rudčenková will be reading in the UK at the Kendal Poetry Festival, with events on Sat 25th June followed by an event at the Czech Consulate in Manchester on the 23rd June.
Dream of a Journey is published by Parthian and can be ordered here……
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