Google Translates Poetry

...Poetry isn't words
Poetry isn't what you see or hear
It is what you feel
Poetry is what you believe
What you are

Akara K.

Google has been testing a system to translate poetry using statistical machine translation techniques. To deliver poetic translations, the system is fed with a large number of poetic pattern (including line-length and rhyme) and is given a wide variety of poetic genres.

According to the Google's Software Engineer, Dmitriy Genzel, the computer scientists are still debating the relevance of preserving meter and rhyme. This topic has been debated endless by famous writers and linguists. The writer Vladimir Nabokov famously stated that it was impossible to keep the meaning and form while translating poems. Against that premise is the academic Douglas Richard Hofstadter that considers that form is an essential part of poetry. He says that poetry translation should take into consideration form as well as poetic meaning. Google's poetic translation is trying to keep the poetic form but this scheme may imply sacrifices to the translation accuracy.

The results so far have been quite surprising. Below, we can see a sample of Google's poetic translation. One of the main obstacles that Google faces is due to the complexity of the algorithm, at present the system is too slow.

Sample translations from Oscar Wilde's "Ballad of Reading Gaol".

Wilde's original

He did not wring his hands, as do
Those witless men who dare
To try to rear the changeling Hope
In the cave of black Despair:
He only looked upon the sun,
And drank the morning air.

Google translation

Without hands twisted like these men,
Poor men without hope, dare
To nourish hope in our vault
Of desperation there
And looked toward the sun, drink cool
Until the evening air

Poetry translation is one of the most complex tasks within literary translation. Even experienced translators struggle to keep the significance of the original verses alongside with the rhyme and figurative language. The most successful poetry translators are themselves poets or have a deep interest and understanding of poetry.

Will Google succeed in its attempt to translate poetry or is this a mission impossible?

Will statistical machine translation be able to preserve the "soul" of the verses?