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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAnd now, the AI translation of the above, created by sharing the same image to Google Lens:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you didn’t get the joke, you wouldn’t be alone: This is a word-for-word, literal translation \u2013 which is what machine translation websites do. The best of them will correct for syntax and grammar, but as a general rule, the more human<\/em> and literary the text, the less reliable AI will be at translating it accurately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means that all the things that go into making language so rich \u2013 humour, irony, metaphor, euphemism, litotes, figures of speech, wordplay, etc. \u2013 are, to AI, essentially a black box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may notice that the register in the translated exchange seems oddly elevated \u2013 almost antiquated \u2013 for a few messages between a husband and wife, and the language seems stilted in some other respects. This is fairly typical of machine translation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But more to the point, colour symbolism is one of the literary devices mentioned above that doesn’t map 1:1 from language to language. Absent further context but assuming the colour itself is not what is meant, green<\/em> in English will generally have natural-world associations, but it could also refer to someone’s inexperience, be understood as a slang reference to money, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Chinese, green<\/em> in this context derives from l\u00fcmaozi<\/em>, \u7da0\u5e3d\u5b50 (lit. \u00ab\u00a0green hat\u00a0\u00bb), and it means \u00ab\u00a0cuckold\u00a0\u00bb or \u00ab\u00a0the state of being a cuckold; being cuckolded\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now you understand the play on words, but the more challenging part, and one that professional translators are paid to grapple with, among a host of others, is (a) recognising such idiomatic expressions where AI can’t, and (b) working out how to retain that double entendre \u2013\u00a0or, at a stretch, any<\/em> type of equivalent wordplay \u2013 while ensuring that the meaning comes across clearly and cleanly in the target language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Translation is not a simple exercise in bilingual substitution, adjusted for grammaticality and idiomaticity. It is a skilled profession and an art in its own right, and that’s why I believe literary translators will remain essential in the age of AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, to the question of whether I’m afraid AI will have me out of job, my answer remains an optimistic:<\/p>\n\n\n\n MSM<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This post was originally written in English. Versions of it in other languages may have been automatically translated unless stated otherwise.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m often asked whether I fear my job as primarily a literary translator being made redundant by AI. Allow me to illustrate my position with a humorous exchange from social media (Taiwanese, in this case). First, the original post: And now, the AI translation of the above, created by sharing the same image to Google Lens: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[145,146,147,135,101],"class_list":["post-9758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights-fr","tag-chinese-translation-2-fr","tag-literary-translation-fr","tag-machine-translation-fr","tag-mckay-translations-2-fr","tag-translation-fr"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mckaytranslations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/tempFileForShare_20250613-113435-844x1024.jpg\")
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