Eighteen months ago, purely for fun, I made my first attempt at seeing whether AI could produce an English translation of a text in Ethiopic, the otherwise untranslated Homily of Yohannan, bishop of Axum, on Abba Garima, printed by Rossini. It could not. A week or so back, I tried again and got a load of rather decent looking results, and I’ve been working on this since. The output from DeepSeek aligned quite well with Rossini’s summary
Last week I accidentally learned that there was a French translation by Gerard Colin.[1] I got hold of that on Friday, and I have compared the first two paragraphs with the AI-generated output from the Ge`ez text.
The results are not positive. The DeepSeek output is really not good enough. Here’s Rossini’s text, followed by Colin’s French. I’ve put the full-stops in red. Ge`ez uses word separators, which I have kept.
ወይቤ ፤ ስምፁ ፡ ወልብዉ ፡ ኦአኀውየ፡ ፍቁራንየ ፡ ዘእነግረክሙ ። ርኢኩ ፡ ብእሲተ ፡ እንዘ ፡ ይዘብጥዋ ፡ ዕራቃ ፡ወእንዘ ፡ ይፀርፉ ፡ ላዕሌሃ ፡ ወላዕለ ፡ እግዝእትነ ፡ ማርያም ፡ እንዘ ፡ ይብሉ፡ በእንተ ፡ ወልዳ ፡ ክርስቶስ ፤ እምብእሲት፡ ኪያሁ ፡ ኢተወልደ ፤ ይብሉ እላ ፡ ኢየአምኑ ፡ በክርስቶስ ። ወኮንኩ ፡ እንዘ ፡ እረውጽ ፡ ወአኀዝኩ ፡እስዐም ፡ ታሕተ ፡ እገሪሃ ፡ ለይእቲ ፡ ብእሲት ፡ እንዘ ፡ ትብል ፤ እወ ፡ በዝ ፡ አንቀጽ ፡ ወፅአ ፡ ንጉሠ ፡ ሰማያት ፡ ወምድር ። ወሶበ ፡ ትብል ፡ ከመዝ ፡ ወረደ ፡ ላዕሌየ ፡ አስራበ ፡ መንፈስ ፡ ቅዱስ ።
Ecoutez et méditez, mes frères bien-aimés, ce que je vais vous raconter. J’ai vu une femme, stérile, que l’on fustigeait et injuriait ainsi que Notre Dame Marie, en parlant à propos du Fils de celle-ci, le Christ. « Il n’est pas né d’une femme », disaient ceux qui ne croyaient pas au Christ. Je me mis à courir et entrepris d’embrasser les pieds de cette femme en disant : « Oui, par cette porte est sorti le roi des deux et de la terre ! » Quand j’eus parlé ainsi, les trombes de l’Esprit Saint descendirent sur moi.
A quick run of Google Translate on Colin gives this:
Listen and meditate, my beloved brothers, on what I am about to tell you. I saw a barren woman being flogged and insulted, along with Our Lady Mary, speaking of her Son, Christ. “He was not born of woman,” said those who did not believe in Christ. I ran and began to embrace the woman’s feet, saying, “Yes, through this gate has come out the king of heaven and of the earth!” When I had spoken these words, the cloudbursts of the Holy Spirit descended upon me.
Now here’s the Deepseek output. I’ve highlighted important differences:
Hear and understand, O my beloved brethren, what I declare to you. I saw a woman while they were stoning her and mocking her, and also mocking our Lady Mary, saying concerning her Son Christ, ‘He was not born of a woman.’ These said, ‘We do not believe in Christ.’ And I stood trembling and took refuge beneath the feet of that woman as she said, ‘Yes, by this decree, the King of Heaven and Earth shall come forth.’ And when she spoke thus, the Holy Spirit descended upon me fourteenfold.
These are not small differences. They obscure what the text is actually saying. And as ever with AI, the output is not stable. That was the output a week ago. Today the same text produced this:
And he said: Listen and understand, O my beloved brothers, what I will tell you. I saw a woman being accused of adultery, and while they were judging her, they also judged our Lady Mary, saying concerning her Son, Christ: “He was not born of a woman’s womb.” Those who say this do not believe in Christ. And as I stood there, I became angry and struck the ground beneath that woman’s feet while she was saying, “Yes, by this argument, let the King of Heaven and Earth come forth!” And when she spoke thus, the Holy Spirit descended upon me.
These are not small differences either. I did venture to ask DeepSeek for details, and the grammar and meaning of individual words. This output also varied uncomfortably. Which basically means that it is not useful.
In conclusion, AI is still not good enough to translate Ge`ez.
Perhaps I shall come back to this in a year, and see how things look then.
- [1]Gérard Colin, Saints Fondateurs du Christianisme Éthiopien: Frumentius, Garimā, Takla-Hāymānot, Ēwostātēwos, Paris: Les Belles Lettres (2017), pp.6-37↩