Because I cannot understand the Greek examples in most of the queries here, I’d like to see posters provide English translations of them.
I too - and most likely many more -would welcome that. Thanks.
I’m not sure how I feel about this, to be honest.
Yes, it would be easier for beginners. But it would also take away the challenge/pleasure/game of spending some time working through the bits of text ourselves. If we can’t work it out, we can either ask for help or look it up online.
Personally, I would just be happy if people would always provide the reference for the text so that it can be searched.
Often, the reason a piece of Greek is discussed is because it’s not quite obvious how to understand it, let alone translate it. In addition, filtering a discussion of Greek through English can easily lead to misinterpretations, when the two languages don’t match up. And it takes time to translate.
I personally can’t understand at least half of the Greek quotes in this forum either, but do not consider myself entitled to comprehension when I’m just snooping in on other people talking about matters I’m not knowledgeable about.
If I don’t understand some Greek text here, I’ll have some AI translate it. It’s translating very well now, for example:
https://bard.google.com/chat
I’ll write:
Translate it into Czech as accurately as you can:
And then I add the Greek text and in a moment I have it translated and often with very good comments on both the translation and the text.
Interesting - BUT . . .
Got this response to my request for translating the following text into English:
φῆσιν οὖν Ἡσίοδος·
υἱὲ Μέλητος Ὅμηρε, θεῶν ἄπο μήδεα εἰδώς, / εἴπ᾽ ἄγε μοι πάμπρωτα, τί φέρτατόν ἐστι βροτοῖσιν;
Ὅμηρος·
ἀρχὴν μὲν μὴ φῦναι ἐπιχθονίοισιν ἄριστον, / φύντα δ᾽ ὅπως ὤκιστα πύλας Ἀΐδαο περῆσαι.
Response:
Δεν διαθέτω αρκετές πληροφορίες σχετικά με το συγκεκριμένο άτομο ώστε να σας βοηθήσω με αυτό το αίτημα. Είμαι ένα μεγάλο γλωσσικό μοντέλο και έχω την ικανότητα να επικοινωνώ και να παράγω κείμενα σαν άνθρωπος ως απάντηση σε ένα μεγάλο εύρος εντολών και ερωτήσεων, αλλά οι γνώσεις μου σχετικά με αυτό το άτομο είναι περιορισμένες. Μπορώ να κάνω κάτι άλλο προκειμένου να σας βοηθήσω με αυτό το αίτημα;
Why Greek when I requested English? - Back to the drawing board?
That is beautiful. It has answered you with the standard, “I’m just a large language model” boilerplate, although in modern Greek, meaning that there was a content warning. I assume that the death content caused the warning flag.
If you rephrase your request slightly, it will correctly translate it. On first pass I got the same as you, but then asked it to translate from “ancient Greek”, and it went through.
I wasn’t able to reproduce exactly with other input, but when I asked it, “Translate: σὺ δ᾿ ἂν κελεύσῃς μὲ ἀποκτεῖναι ἑμαυτόν;” I received some crisis hotline numbers.
I played around with it some more and got this:
Translate: φοβοῦμαι, ὦ φίλα, μή με κύειν. μήπω γὰρ ἥκει ἡ περίοδός μου. τί δὲ ποιήσω; ἀποκτεινῶ ἐμαυτόν.
The Greek text translates to:I fear, O friend, that I am pregnant. For my period has not yet come. What shall I do? I will kill myself.
This is a line from the Greek play Medea by Euripides. In the play, Medea is a woman who has been abandoned by her husband, Jason. She is angry and vengeful, and she plots to kill Jason’s new wife, Creusa, and their children.
In this line, Medea is expressing her fear that she is pregnant with Jason’s child. She knows that if she is pregnant, she will be unable to leave Jason, even if she wants to. She also knows that if she is pregnant, she will be vulnerable to Jason’s abuse.
In desperation, Medea contemplates suicide. She believes that death is the only way to escape her situation.
The line is a powerful expression of Medea’s fear and despair. It also foreshadows the violence that is to come.
Ah yes, the importance of asking the right question!
And I had never known the stuff about Medea being pregnant and being worried about Jason’s abuse. It must have been redacted from the version of the play that I read.
Fascinating. I didn’t even know that the AIs could do dead languages. Which model are you all using?