Moonfish - Opah: WUaS Universal Translator with this ancient Greek to English example, Fascinating to add to an Universal Translator a hypothetical 10 translations of "Electra," with all of their interpretations of multiple metaphors in this play, derive a set of rules and vocabulary from these translations, synthesize these rules into the Universal Translator (perhaps in CC Wikidata written for Wikipedia's ~300 languages), and then use these rules with developing machine learning to generate further Ancient Greek > English translations, and in all other 7,941+ language combinations as well, Hum 101 course World University and School would like to offer to all matriculating students online beginning in 2017, building on Reed College's required first year Hum 110 course (about the ancient Greek and Roman worlds and thinking), Also concerning conceiving of an universal translator in Wikidata, I wonder whether aliases (of an "entity," "item," or "property") could be used to add, for example, 1000 possible hypothetical translations of a sentence or a phrase (from any text), and then queried for the best translation.

Fascinating to add to an Universal Translator a hypothetical 10 translations of "Electra," with

all of their interpretations of multiple metaphors in this play,

derive a set of rules and vocabulary from these translations,

synthesize these rules into the Universal Translator (perhaps in CC Wikidata written for Wikipedia's ~300 languages), and then

use these rules with developing machine learning to generate further Ancient Greek > English translations,

and in all other 7,941+ language combinations as well.


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WUaS Universal Translator -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/WUaS_Universal_Translator



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Dear Prof. Englert,

Greetings from the SF Bay Area (Canyon, actually, near St. Mary's in Moraga). I hope this finds you well. A friend of mine, Scot Campbell in SF, who has just completed two films asked me recently how best to translate this passage from ancient Greek from Electra for a project he's developing. (I went to Reed from 1979-1985 and was a housemate of Reed Dance Professor Carla Mann for some years).

Here's the passage from Electra that we want to translate, with the metaphor intact.  Thanks!

"ALL OUTOI TON GEX AIDA PANGKOINOU LIMNAS PATER ANSTASEIS OUTE GOOIS OUTE EUXAIS"

Google Translate suggests "THE OTHER he GEX THESE PANGKOINOU stagnation Father ANSTASEIS NOR NOR EFCHAIS GOOUS" :)

And World University and School's Universal Translator - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/WUaS_Universal_Translator - is still in the planning stages, as we prepare to donate CC WUaS to CC Wikidata, the inter-lingual database written for Wikipedia's now 300 languages.

Could you possibly please suggest a translation or online resource for translating this with metaphor intact? Thank you. 

Best regards,

Scott

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Dear Scott,

Thanks for the note.  I’m glad to hear your in the Bay Area.  Canyon is beautiful - I got to know it when I was an undergraduate there in the 70s.

The line you mention is from Sophocles’ Electra, lines 137-139

The Greek is:  

ἀλλ᾽ οὔτοι τόν γ᾽ ἐξ Ἀΐδα
παγκοίνου λίμνας πατέρ᾽ ἀν-
στάσεις οὔτε γόοισιν οὔτ᾽ εὐχαῖς. 

A good translation of the lines is that of Richard Jebb (available on the Perseus website):

"But never by weeping nor by prayer will you resurrect your father from the pool of Hades which receives all men.”

I hope this helps!

Yours,

Wally

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Dear Wally,

Thanks so much. I'll pass on this helpful translation to my friend Scot. As an anthropologist and having lived in Canyon for nearly 7 years now, I'm curious what you might have gotten to know about Canyon. What was it like then?

As a kind of associated benefit from learning of this helpful translation ( http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%.01.0188 ) and also as a kind of brainstorm in planning and in thinking through a WUaS Universal Translator with this ancient Greek to English example, it would be fascinating to add to an U.T. a hypothetical 10 translations of "Electra," with all of their interpretations of multiple metaphors in this play, derive a set of rules and vocabulary from these translations, synthesize these rules into the Universal Translator (perhaps in CC Wikidata written for Wikipedia's ~300 languages), and then use these rules with developing machine learning to generate further Ancient Greek > English translations.

Thanks again so much.

Yours,

Scott


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Wally,

Thank you!

As a kind of associated benefit from learning of this helpful translation (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%.01.0188) and also as a kind of brainstorm in planning and in thinking through a WUaS Universal Translator with this ancient Greek to English example, it would be fascinating to add to an U.T. a hypothetical 10 translations of "Electra," with all of their interpretations of multiple metaphors in this play, derive a set of rules and vocabulary from these translations, synthesize these rules into the Universal Translator (perhaps in CC Wikidata written for Wikipedia's ~300 languages), and then use these rules with developing machine learning to generate further Ancient Greek > English translations.

Scott


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Scot ... I appreciate too the opportunity now to connect further with Wally about the Hum 101 course World University and School would like to offer to all matriculating students online beginning in 2017, building on Reed College's required first year Hum 110 course (about the ancient Greek and Roman worlds and thinking) which Reed has taught nearly a century, and where the Conference Method (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_Method_of_Teaching_and_Learning) is also taught, an approach to learning which will probably be central at WUaS. Wally is a kind of head of it, since he teaches classics, and has been at Reed for so long.

Cheers,

Scott

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Also concerning conceiving of an universal translator in Wikidata, I wonder whether aliases (of an "entity," "item," or "property" - https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Glossary#Entities.2C_items.2C_properties_and_queries) could be used to add, for example, 1000 possible hypothetical translations of a sentence or a phrase (from any text), and then queried for the best translation.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opah

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