This month’s La Española is a bit of a different one, as I translate a poem by Ana Flecha Marco, a translator from English, Norwegian and French into Spanish. The poem, ‘With AI we’ve no chance’ was first published on the Instituto Cervantes online magazine, El Trujamán, a publication that collaborates with ACE Traductores and Vasos Comunicantes here in Spain to publish weekly articles on translation.
The poem was written to draw attention to an issue that is currently effecting literature and translation across the whole world – not just in Spain. That’s right, the dreaded words that are on every translators’ lips right now: artificial intelligence. Ana’s poem accepts that AI is here to stay, and that quite honestly, there’s nothing we can do about it: “we’ve no chance”. However, she reminds us that this only means we need to be more aware of what AI cannot do when it comes to constructing creative, artistic pieces, when it comes to understanding the complexities, nuances and numerous contexts of a literary piece. The poem also encourages us to consider how we want the art we consume to be created, and questions the moral aspects of what accepting and using AI for creative productions would mean for the literature we would consume, the pockets we would line, and the people we would leave jobless.
Recently, stories of agents using AI to translate samples of books, or even publishers running entire novels through artificial intelligence software to then be ‘post-edited’ by translators (of course at a much lower fee) seem to be cropping up more and more. AI definitely feels like a bit of a buzzword right now in the world of literary translation (and I imagine many other creative professions), however, unlike the usual buzz words, this is one that holds great importance, and needs to be taken seriously. As generative artificial intelligence is advancing more and more, it is quickly becoming something that we translators need to be aware of and work against; fortunately, this is something that is slowly, but very surely happening in the Spanish translation world right now.
Whilst in Spain, like in the UK, we are seeing more and more articles, online discussions, panels, and research surfacing around what AI really means for the literary translation world, much awareness is also being generated thanks to a campaign against AI in translation that was founded by Spanish-Frenchtranslatorand member of ATLAS,Margot Ngyuen Béraud. Margot has been working very hard at spreading the word in France; the petition has been signed by editors, publishers, translators, authors, and readers alike, and is gaining real traction. The campaign has been translated into English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovenian, Serbian and Turkish (with many more languages in the works). To mark its translation into Spanish, I chaired an event here in Madrid at Desperate Literature bookshop with Margot and translator Mateo Pierre Avit Ferrero to discuss the aims of the campaign, highlight the negative impact of generative AI on the literary translation world and literature in general, and spread the word among the Spanish-speakingliterary scene.
You can find out more information about exactly what the campaign is aiming towards here:En chair et en os. Make sure to sign the petition and share the campaign, bringing it to theattention of English-language readers, translators, and writers so we can spread the word far and wide!
To mark the importance of human translation, here is my ‘flesh and bone’ translation, of Ana’s ‘flesh and bone’ poem…
With AI we’ve no chance
Nowadays, we take communion,even atheists communicatewith giant cogsthat look like mills:the market is regulated,there’s supply,there’s demand.Yet those who work with words,don’t have two pennies to rub together.And if they want to believethat a machine freesif the money andthe words it generatesare for the owner and the owner alone,let them.Of course, it’s not that I don’t worryabout what this means for us,but intelligence,artificial or not,is not what scares me.I don’t give a sh*tif a computer, a thousandwant to take my job,that there’s no turning back.Ha! I wish!My head would be happy in the clouds,if livelihood were not on the line.Because this is the questionof the last bastionI want to defend.Work is dignified,if together with the sweat,the tears, the creative effort,the fatigue, the charmof reading other authors,we receive good payment,compatible with life.And it’s not that we’re idle,even the most decoratedmust still fill their stomachs.Another matter is whether AIis capable of doingeverything a brain can do.And of course, the brain aloneisn’t worth much without the eyes,without the tongue and the earsand the fingers and the skin.I doubt it, but, look,that’s the least of it.We can’t dance aroundwhen it comes to earning our daily bread.With AI, we’ve no chance,because it’s here to stay,but there’s no need to conform,to let yourself be convinced.What matters more to usthan experience,training, knowledgesense and sensibility?All this will not be replacedfrom dusk to the next dawnby a handful of programsthat neither understand context,nor have seen it coming.I don’t know if this convinces you,but the wordsthat make up these verses,were first written with a pair of hands,then translated with a head:hands and a head that somedayworms will certainly eatbecause our bodies are humanand so is our intelligence.
By Ana Flecha Marco
Translated by Alice Banks
Alice Banksis a creative and literary translator from French and Spanish based in Madrid. After studying the MA in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia, Alice began working with the European Literature Network as an Editorial Assistant. She also volunteers as a copy editor forAsymptote Journaland is a publishing assistant at Fum d’Estampa Press.
Read previous posts in La Española series:
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. Asturian Lit: Extract from THE FORCE OR THE FOUR EPIPHANIES OF MARTÍN FEITO by Xaime Martínez, translated from the Asturian by Robin Munby
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. III Festival of Queer Spanish Literature in London
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LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. November – Katixa Agirre’s DE NUEVO CENTAURO
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. October – Katie Whittemore’s Translator Triptych
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. June – Feria del libro, Madrid
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. May – Non-fiction
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. April: Catalan Spotlight at the London Book Fair
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. March: From Ukraine to Spain
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. February: Spain, a nation of booklovers
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. December: Galician Focus
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. November Author focus: Elizabeth Duval
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. October: Basque Focus
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. September: Children’s Literature. By our guest columnist Claire Storey, introduced by La Española editor Alice Banks
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks.Las Sinsombrero
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. July:Crime and Thriller Writing
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. June:The Short Story
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. May:Contemporary Fiction
LA ESPAÑOLA: Riveting Writing from Spain with Alice Banks. April:Catalan Focus
