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12,107 line-for-line translation of the A.T. Murray Greek text (Loeb, 1919) by Claude Fable. Includes line notes and an index. HTML, epub, pdf, and YouTube Audi

12,107 line-for-line translation of the A.T. Murray Greek text (Loeb, 1919) by Claude Fable. Includes line notes and an index. HTML, epub, pdf, and YouTube Audio (by gpt4o-TTS). A dual-agent review pass was done on the entire work with a third "adjudication" agent reconciling their findings. Reviewer agnets were gpt-5.6-sol high reasoning.

8by3 2mo ago
why?
- spinchange 2mo ago
  I love the poem and wanted a modern translation with annotations and index, etc., to be freely available to anyone who wanted to read it. I had a sense that Fable would do a really good job. I am pleased with how it came out. The review agents didn't change a single word of the translation, only some of the notes.
- squidbeak 2mo ago
  Every translator is opinionated in some way. I can see the appeal in having something like this as a neutral comparison.
  - SwellJoe 2mo ago
    LLMs are not neutral, either. They don't have "opinions", per se, as they don't want anything, but they do have biases baked into their training.
- anigbrowl 2mo ago
  One very simple benefit is that it's unencumbered by copyright. I do value the work of human translators; when they're really in harmony with the original work, they can be fantastic. But they can also be disastrous, like Alfred Birnbaum's translations of Murakami, which radically reshapes the protagonist and threw out nearly 20% of the original work.
  - exmadscientist 2mo ago
    The problem is that (we have every reason to believe) models like Claude were trained on existing translations. Now they're being used to generate things that are direct replacements for those translations in the marketplace. This is basically an anti-AI author or lawyer's dream case. And, seeing this uncanny-valley-of-slop output, I kind of hope they go for it.
  - munk-a 2mo ago
    If the Murakami was undertranslated then how will having more translations that crowd out the potential revenue of future translators help produce better quality translations?
axus 2mo ago
It seems the traffic has made the site inaccessible. I'm enjoying reading the first page that's still in my browser.

8by3 2mo ago

why?

spinchange 2mo ago
I love the poem and wanted a modern translation with annotations and index, etc., to be freely available to anyone who wanted to read it. I had a sense that Fable would do a really good job. I am pleased with how it came out. The review agents didn't change a single word of the translation, only some of the notes.
squidbeak 2mo ago
Every translator is opinionated in some way. I can see the appeal in having something like this as a neutral comparison.
- SwellJoe 2mo ago
  LLMs are not neutral, either. They don't have "opinions", per se, as they don't want anything, but they do have biases baked into their training.
anigbrowl 2mo ago
One very simple benefit is that it's unencumbered by copyright. I do value the work of human translators; when they're really in harmony with the original work, they can be fantastic. But they can also be disastrous, like Alfred Birnbaum's translations of Murakami, which radically reshapes the protagonist and threw out nearly 20% of the original work.
- exmadscientist 2mo ago
  The problem is that (we have every reason to believe) models like Claude were trained on existing translations. Now they're being used to generate things that are direct replacements for those translations in the marketplace. This is basically an anti-AI author or lawyer's dream case. And, seeing this uncanny-valley-of-slop output, I kind of hope they go for it.
- munk-a 2mo ago
  If the Murakami was undertranslated then how will having more translations that crowd out the potential revenue of future translators help produce better quality translations?

axus 2mo ago

It seems the traffic has made the site inaccessible. I'm enjoying reading the first page that's still in my browser.