Machine Translation on Haiku

I was curious about how machines and AI translate haiku, because haiku can be extremely difficult to translate. A literal translation often loses some of the poem’s spirit, especially with a poet like Kobayashi Issa, who has such a distinctive voice and can be surprisingly humorous.

After trying a few different translations, I realized that Robert Hass is still incredibly hard to beat. In his translations of Issa, you can really hear Issa’s own voice coming through.

露の世は露の世ながらさりながら

“The world of dew is the world of dew. ……And yet, and yet —.”
— Robert Hass

DeepL:

“Though this world is but a fleeting one, still...”

ChatGPT:

“Though this world is a world of dew, even so…”

隅の蜘案じな煤はとらぬぞよ

“Don’t worry, spiders,
I keep house
Casually.”
— Issa, trans. Robert Hass

DeepL:

“I won’t let the soot in the corner get to me.”

ChatGPT:

“A spider in the corner, don’t worry, I won’t sweep away the soot.”

Kerry