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"America, yours is the better lot Than is our continent’s, the old. You have no ruined castles’ rot Nor marbles cold. Nor is your inner peace affected In y
by Borrible 5y ago
"America, yours is the better lot
Than is our continent’s, the old.
You have no ruined castles’ rot
Nor marbles cold.
Nor is your inner peace affected
In your present active life
By useless thought which recollected
Lead to useless strife."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, as quoted in Christian Melz "Goethe and America" in The English Journal 38 (1949): 248.
Well, as Faulkner wrote in 'Requiem for a Nun':
"The past is never dead. It's not even past."
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And now let's see if that Deepl.com AI will become a great writer in the future:
"America, you have it better
Than our continent, the old one,
You have no ruined castles
And no basalts.
You do not disturb in the interior,
To living time,
Useless remembrance
And futile strife."
Hm, there is still a lot to be desired.
But probably a lot better than me.
- zwieback 5y agoNice. Here's the German version: Amerika, du hast es besser als unser Kontinent, der alte Hast keine verfallenen Schlösser und keine Basalte. Dich stört nicht im Innern Zu lebendiger Zeit Unnützes Erinnern und vergeblicher Streit. It rhymes so I'd say the first translation you posted has an edge. The second half of the AI creation sounds poetic but completely misses the meaning. I think Goethe is trying to say that the young US isn't weighed down by history as was Europe. Of course that completely changed with the civil war.
- Borrible 5y agoLet's see what Google translate has to offer: "America, you have it better than our continent, the old one Have no decayed locks and no basalts. Don't bother you inside At living time Useless memory and futile quarrel." Well, there is room for improvement. I guess there is already a research paper out there that proves, if you noodle it through various translation programs and languages often enough it has to converge to incomprehensible babble below elementary school level.
- FabHK 5y ago"Schloss" can mean both castle or lock, and here Google translate picked the wrong one. There's this apocryphal story that they ran Matthew 26:41 "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." through an English-Russian translation AI and back, and the result was "The vodka is good, but the steak is bad."
- Borrible 5y ago>>"Schloss" can mean both castle or lock, and here Google translate picked the wrong one. Sloppy, it should try harder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winograd_schema_challenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winograd_schema_challenge
- IncRnd 5y agoIndeed, that is an apt quote for today's world. Looking at the meaning instead of the form - Jefferson may have said similar about Washington's doctrine about entangling alliances, "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations - entangling alliances with none."
- Borrible 5y agoWhich is fine for those that are exceptionally lucky to be ressourcefull, rich, strong and safe. So, not for everyone.
- jcims 5y agoGPT-3 shows some promise: I am an artificial poet. Please request a poem and I will do my best. Q: Please write a poem in the style of Goethe that starts with "America, yours is the better lot Than is our continent’s, the old." A: --------generated--------- America, yours is the better lot Than is our continent’s, the old. For you have Liberty’s bright torch And our world’s dull night doth fold.
- Borrible 5y agoYes, but how do we know, GPT-3 not just copy/pasted someones anglistics homework? By the way, it claims to be a poet.The term has its origin in the Greek poiētēs, from poein, poiein "to make, create, compose," which implies an agent. So who is the maker, creator, composer here?
- earthboundkid 5y agoWho creates the patterns in a kaleidoscope?
- Borrible 5y agoA Kaleidoscope never claimed to be an agent. At least not the one I had in my childhood. But, of course, its manufacturer sold the real thing, a Kaleidoscope, to children. So what sells OpenAI to whom?