Why Literary Translators should embrace Translation Technology

Abstract

Machine translation (MT) quality has improved significantly with the advent of neural techniques. Some communications about these improvements have been the product of overeager marketing hype, but MT is playing a real role in the lives of many human translators today. MT has even started to be used in pilot studies for the translation of literature, with results that outperformed anticipated outcomes. Nonetheless, its use and uptake as well as the acknowledgement of its potential merit are meeting with a degree of resistance, especially among some more experienced literary translators. In other areas, translators have complained about tools being foisted upon them, and have sought consultation on the design of translation technology. There are examples where translator input into tool design has happened to good effect, but in literary translation per se, translators have been recorded as avoiding such conversations. In this article, we investigate why some literary translators behave differently to their peers in other fields of translation. Finally, we offer pointers as to how translation technology, MT in particular, could benefit literary translators who have an open mind concerning technology.