"Naked conductor runs under the car." About online translation

The phrase in the headline is taken from the Soviet classics, as an example of a “literal” translation of a technical text that should look like this: “a bare wire passes under a crane carriage”. To my regret, I belong to the category of IT specialists, who understand English-language specialized documents, but with a competent presentation in the “great technical” language - serious problems.

Why is this skill needed? The following is obvious:

- formulate a search query;

- to formulate a question on the forum;

- reply to a forum or post a product.

The latter, of course, is not necessary, but if you consume something in the corresponding network segment, you need to share something, and in my opinion it’s impolite to post the Russian text to English-language resources.

I will try to show whether free online translators can help with this.



To begin with, I think a little: translation from English into Russian. RFC7231, 6.5.11, 2nd paragraph appeared in front of the nose:

If you try to do so, you can try again.

The phrase is interesting in that it is “torn out” from the context and contains fragments that cannot be translated.



Translate.ru www.translate.ru

If the condition is temporary, the server MUST make a Retry — After the header area to indicate that it is temporary and after what time the client CAN try again.

worldLingo www.worldlingo.com

If the condition is temporary, the server MUST produce a Retry-After collector field to indicate that it is temporary and after what time the client MAY try again.

Google translate.google.com

If this is a temporary condition, the server SHOULD generate a Retry-After header field to indicate that it is temporary and after that time that the client can try again.

Yandex translate.yandex.ru

If the condition is temporary, the server should generate a repeat-after field header to indicate that it is temporary and after what time the client can try again.

It is strange that “condition” is translated as “condition”, since “status” is in the first place in the Yandex dictionary.

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Bing www.bing.com/translator

If this state is temporary, the server should create a Retry-After header field to indicate that it is temporary, and after what time the client can try again.

With the top three determined. As you can see, Bing handled the task better (I will not find fault with the RFC agreements on SHOULD, MUST, MAY).

Primary school teaches to check the result by the opposite action, so slip the Bing transfer to “input” and look at the “output”:

It can be try again.

I read that with machine translation, statistical methods are used, but so word for word ... It is encouraging.



There is a temptation to apply iteration to achieve accuracy through the equivalence of direct and reverse translation. I will arrange a cross-poll on the canonical example:

Mom washed the frame.

As far as I remember the primer - this is the caption to the drawing, and the frame, of course, is windowed.



Google

1. Mom washed the frame. > Mom soap frame. > Mom soap frame.

2. [I specify] Mom washed the window frame. > Mom washed the window frame. > Mom washed window frame.

3. [take Google tip] Mom washes the window frame. > Mom washes the window frame. > Mom washes the window frame.

Match achieved when the time of the action is distorted.



Yandex

1. Mom washed the frame. > Mama washed the window. > Mom washed the frame.

Too good to be true: “window” is still not “frame”. I will not deceive myself - I will check Google:

1. Mama washed the window. > Mom washed the windows.

Again the distortion. Not windows, but part of the window. And not the fact that the washing process is completed. I go to the second run.

Yandex

2. Mom washed the window frame. > Mama washed the window frame. > Mom washed the window frame.

English translation is similar to Google, but is it accurate?



Bing

1. Mom washed the frame. > SOAP mom frame. > Rama mom soap.

2. Mom washed the window frame. > SOAP mom the window frame. > Mom washed the frame.

I guess what SOAP Bing means. The circle is closed. The match is not reached.



The experiment shows: the initial sentence of three words requires several iterations. Very expensive, despite the fact that compliance is achieved by distorting the original meaning. And, in general, not the fact that native speakers will understand you for sure.



This post, of course, is a joke based on real data.

It is much easier to master algorithmic languages ​​than “living” ones. In the first case, we have strict "controllers" in the form of compilers, linkers, debuggers. But who (what) will check us in the second?