Op 16-jun-2009, om 12:12 heeft Frans W. Maes het volgende
geschreven:
Dear Steve and all,
Three free translators I sometimes use
for websites or short texts, are:
You may try each on the AFP press release:
and judge the quality (when you read
French and English) or see whether
you get the message. In this case, the
photos set the stage for the
story, so that makes it easier.
For this limited sample, I think Prompt
does a slightly better job than
Google, and Babelfish is last. What do
you think, Joël?
Prompt marks the words that were not
translated, such as proper names,
which is handy.
More generally, a simple original, both
in terminology and in grammar,
leads to a better translation. That's why
e-mail messages often
translate badly.
For me, the most important paragraph in
this text is how the sundial
should function:
"Innovation de ce cadran: c'est l'ombre
même du parapet projetée sur la
voûte du barrage qui permet de lire
l'heure solaire.
Chaque heure est matérialisée par une
"ligne horaire" confectionnée avec
des plaques en lave émaillée: ocres pour
les heures du matin, vertes
pour celles de l'après-midi. L'heure
solaire est connue lorsque l'ombre
tangente l'une de ces lignes."
which translates into:
Babelfish:
Innovation of this dial: it is the shade
even parapet projected on the
vault of the stopping which makes it
possible to read the solar hour.
Each hour is materialized by a “time
line” made with plates in enamelled
lava: ochres for the hours of the
morning, green for those of the
afternoon. The solar hour is known when
the tangent shade one of these
lines.
Google:
Innovation of the dial: the very shadow
of the parapet onto the arch
dam, which allows you to get the solar
time.
Each hour is marked by a "line timetable"
made with plates in enamelled
lava: ochers for the morning, green for
those in the afternoon. The
solar time is known when the shadow
tangent one of these lines.
Prompt:
Innovation of this face: it is the shadow
of the breastwork cast on the
arch of the dam which allows to read the
solar hour.
Every hour is fulfilled by a "line per
hour" made with plates in
interspersed lava: ochres for hours,
green for those of afternoon. The
solar hour is known when tangent shadow
one of these lines.
In the original, the most essential word
of the entire story is
"tangente", which apparently is used as a
verb: the shadow of the edge
touches (kisses, osculates) an hour line.
This may be an uncommon usage,
as all three utilities interpret it as an
adjective and try to make at
least some sense out of it.
And I wonder what the lava strips are
made of...
Best regards,
Frans Maes
Steve wrote:
Confrere:
I am interested in translating email
and web
pages into English. I use as example the note
from Joel about the Castillon Dam. The link
contained in his email is to a web page
in French and so my question.
I use Eudora for mail and have receded
to FireFox
version 2.00.18. However, I have tried various
translators with several versions
without much success.
My question. Does anyone use a translation
program for email and the web, with
success.
Thanks
Steve
Yorktown VA
At 01:13 PM 6/15/2009, robic.joel wrote:
Hello Frans and all,
It's the Castillon Dam, see this AFP
article, you will understand easiler
the principle
More information is available in
French "Cadran Info" magazine (including
modelling by Gérard Baillet and
calculations from Denis Savoie).
Best regards
Joël
48°01'25'' N, 1°45'40" O
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: French dam to be
world´s biggest sundial
Dear all,
The audio track of the video is
bad, so I was unable to hear which dam
this is, and how the sundial would
function. Does anyone know more about
this intriguing project?
Best regards,
Frans Maes
Josef Pastor wrote:
Dear Dialists,
Famous French Denis Savoie
presents a French dam to be world´s biggest
sundial on "You Tube".
Best regards
Josef Pastor
**
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