翻译、语境和大语言模型
在推崇翻译专业性和学术性的大氛围中,下面这段文字转而强调翻译的业余性,认为业余翻译是人类语言不可缺席的活动,是语言存续的生命线(氧气)。初一看,文字并不艰深,句法也不复杂,翻译不会很难。但一下笔,却感到有些词看似简单,落实却颇费思量。文中谈点颇多,不能面面俱到,找出四个词,作些分析,也借机对AI大语言模型评长论短一番:
Let universities and corporations open their doors, their journals, their prizes, and their platforms to amateur translations done for love, done recklessly, imperfectly, but gloriously. Let tenured scholars use their privilege to protect the teenager’s translation of a poem, the grandmother’s recording of her fading dialect, and the student’s trembling first attempt at writing in a second language. Let the last human voices—imperfect, playful, unnecessary—remain the final source of linguistic oxygen on Earth.
第一个词reckless,是说业余翻译有reckless的倾向,汉语的对应词是“鲁莽”。(剩余2469字)