thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
In fact, I suspect my very wording here discourages belief in my nutness, but this won't make me any less nuts, though.Then my hard-to-believe nutness. If I want to explain it, it is highly advisable to do so understandably, otherwise in the end I wont have explained a thing to any possible reader. I suppose I can do this, but the better I explain my own nutness, the harder to believe it naturally gets. So, whether you believe me or not, I'm stating my nutness here. What the hell am I doing that for? This is something I dont know myself, which makes good sense if you bear in mind that I'm really nuts.The strangest fact about my nutness is its intriguing implausibility. Things I say do sound sound, and things I write usually sound still more so. There seems to be no way out.
I'm giving private classes again. A new friend's wife had picked my phone number somewhere, so he gave me a ring a couple of days ago. After a short introduction, we appointed a first class which took place at his house.He is in his early thirties and wants to acquire a working command of the English language for professional reasons. He is in marketing, has a university degree and now he has to learn English, otherwise he will be doomed to stick to his present position in the business.I had sent him some exercises by email, which were used in our first training session. He began to understand and use basic structures of the language by manipulating them himself in the way I had shown him. He was glad to see by himself that the whole stuff works. This kindled in him justifiable hope. He had already tried 'fashionable' methods which are expensive but led him to no progress worth mentioning.Let's see what comes next. A person badly wounded and bleeding to death is not a scene I'd ever choose to witness. I know it happens everywhere, of course. However, I'd rather be spared all details. I'm convinced that life has far better scenes to catch the eye of any observer anytime, anywhere, too. That certainly includes internet and the so-called virtual world. Producing this kind of scene virtually, for fun, is an experience Im not inclined to ever want to try. And I feel really sorry for those who are. I just can't help thinking they could easily do something much better, and funnier, too, if they chose.When I was young, my father used to read popular newspapers. They were utterly disgusting for me. On account of the overemphasis they gave to crime-related news, people used to say literal blood would come out if you wrung one of them. I never tried to check that for myself, but I hated those successful newspapers which thrived and fared ever better by turning the public attention to violent crime. I also hated all the appreciation that kind of news used to meet. Things dont seem to have changed much, since. That kind of press still thrives on the very same stuff. Todays media has only made that thriving get ever stronger. Radio, television, internet, you name it, still supply too much of it. Add to that the fact that millions of people the world over have nowadays lots of options for having their thrill by actively doing abominable things like fighting, slaughtering, stealing, all of that virtually. This way, they keep shedding and losing virtual blood, thus feeding this side of their natures.Again, my feelings about that arent good at all. I'm already in my mid-fifties now. There is no trace of my early revolt and hatred left any longer. But I still cant stand those virtual games especially developed to please such a growing bloodthirsty demand.All this is in flat disagreement with an excellent twenty-century old text which reads: "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are
just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things". Philippians 4:8.
What news could I reasonably expect for this blog to which I only turn on occasion now, as a rule with light stuff? At best, some newcomer who'd come across it and say hello here, right?This best expectation did materialize through Betty. Betty, an American from (or living in) Baltimore I met by chance in a Linked In group gave me the honor to show up here and not only greeted me but left her comments on a number of old posts, following the timeline. She wrote a book I wouldnt hesitate ordering, if I were a little better off now. My other readers can check all that for themselves just by clicking where she left comments here. Other persons I met thanks to internet also took cognizance of my blogging and let me know of it. Gabriela is a translator from Argentina and she runs a translation office there. She told me that a comment I wrote in a discussion stirred her curiosity and then she came to see my blogs. She knows a whole bunch of languages and is very good at them all, one of them being Portuguese. So she could read from everything I write. She commented through e-mail even on posts of my Bonde Andando. Her first message to me read at its head "Nice to e-meet you". What an opening, isnt it? Another colleague from another international list of translators first-named Dorothy came to visit my blogs and told me so. She had seen my introduction there and felt like knowing more. Her own records are impressive, indeed. She is successful as a translator; she travels a lot the world over and was born in France. We began communicating in English and so we kept doing. After many e-mails about translation, an exchange of resumes and this and that, she told me she's going to give me some work to do when something fit comes up. Naturally I'm rooting for that to happen soon. Bills keep coming fierce as usual, dont they?Then there's Patty, a very good poet from Poets group, again at Linked In. She accepted some contribution of mine and expressed beautifully her appreciation for my Rights, there. We got virtually acquainted and then I found her at Facebook. We entertained online conversation yesterday. She told me of her impressions this blog gave her in a ten minute chat. Used as she is of reading varied and lengthy written material on a daily basis, shes really skilled at assessing fast someones style, correctness, etc. She told me she likes my English. Oh how good it feels knowing of this from her! Marna was the first international visitor this blog received. Our interblog dialogue began with my visit to one of hers. I left a comment on sheet music reading then and we began this wholesome interchange of ideas, now extended to Facebook, too. I think of her now as of a next door neighbor, though I never saw her except in photos and never heard her voice. Such generously stated and reinforced appreciation I
Since Im a Brazilian translator, I'll naturally restrict my examples to the pair English-Portuguese, in either way. Unnaturalness in translation can be lavishly exemplified, by resorting to anything translated automatically by any of the tools now available therefor. Bad human translators will also contribute a lot of these unhappy examples.I know a blogger whose stuff is read by too many people from too many places. He has his posts translated automatically. Anyone can see the texts so translated are invariably clumsy, hard to understand, full of absurdities, incoherent, in short, they simply never sound natural. No wonder. Anyone but those who believe something automatically translated is adequate to be served to a multilingual readership can see how texts are impoverished by direct machine translation, without at least a competent review. Delivering the raw translation made by Google Translator, for instance, to readers of another language may seem almost unthinkable to anyone who has the slightest idea of what a well written text is. However, thats just what some people out there are doing. No kidding. Youll certainly get plenty of sentences which sound now stilted, now unintelligible, nonsensical and utterly ridiculous. These automatic translating resources do not work in much the same way as we humans (the natural translators) use to. For one, most of them, as far as I know, work for free. We humans also make mistakes, of course. The great difference I see lies in the fact that we, at least, stand a chance of ever feeling ashamed for such mistakes. Onn the other hand, there is no point in praising a machine translator for an outstanding performance, is there? or in telling it off on account of a shabby, unspeakably ridiculous rendering. It is supposed to react with exactly the same indifference to either the highest praise or the harsher scolding, arent I right?What is the point in expecting any naturalness from a machine? It cant react to any opinion, it cant understand anything at all, it cant make any sensible choice to fit situations or circumstances, it cant consider what it takes in order to choose how to say what to whom, it cant translate with minimum taste or expertise. Only we humans, who have the experience of using a language as a tool for real communication, can supply any degree of naturalness in translation.There is much to be considered when you translate, if you want to sound natural. First of all, you have to understand very well what is being conveyed in the original text, and you should also be able to guess certain intentions on the part of the author. For instance, when an author says/writes something only to be funny - no matter how successfully - if his translator just cant guess this, and worse still, treats the would-be joke as something serious, something important will certainly be lost in translation. No naturalness will be attained. The language used in a given situation may be full of metaphors that give color to the original, but hell to the translator, unless if it is a
machine, who isnt anyway supposed to care for naturalness, adequateness, taste, etc... Many a time I saw expressions like How far is far? translated into Portuguese as Quao longe e longe? True, it is a literal, word-for-word translation. The problem is that no Portuguese speaker would ever think of asking such a question this way. It is on the whole unnatural. There are human translators who dont seem even to suspect how unnatural quao longe e longe sounds. These will never be good translators before they manage to make such an obvious realization. Machines will never be good translators at all, in this sense, before they can understand what is being said and react accordingly.I dont think a cold machine is likely to make the right decision when good morning can be translated literally as boa manha (if thats what these words really mean, for example, in I spent a very good morning with them), or when to translate it as bom dia, a usual greeting. As a rule, human translators are. Expressions like both A and B are ..., according to my experience, are too often translated as ambos A e B sao .... Laughable, to say the least. In order to translate even objective, predominantly referential texts with naturalness, the person (or machine, if it were possible) should possess both a lot of experience with the target language handling and a sound knowledge of the source language. In the absence of both, its simply impossible, for either man or machine.
This week I got a weird virtual message from someone who initially said something about having a translation job for me. As always, I forwarded an e-mail for details. Then the whole thing proved a ridiculous, obvious bait. Someone claimed to be entitled to a substatial fortune in dollars from a deceased Asian big wig and tried to get my consent to have it all deposited in my bank account. I could not care less for this whole business, but sent back the following reply, verbatim:"In all earnest, I dont know who told you I was interested in getting so stinking rich overnight, but I'm really NOT.Keep tempting me, if you like. In the long run you'll see what a waste of your time and best efforts on someone like me."That's how I decided to keep worrying about how to make ends meet here, and remain as poor as the English in this person's mail. A choice I'm sure I'll never be sorry for. Ive joined Babelcube early this year, while I was still giving English classes.It is a relatively new company which operates mostly online, where indie authors and translators from practically everywhere in this world meet for interesting partnerships. The contracted payment for book translations there is based on the sales performance the respective works will attain. I found it a very good idea. Then I joined both as a translator and as an author. My book Poesia Amadora, which I wrote in Portuguese, includes a short sample of translation. There is a page originally written in Portuguese by one of my brothers. I find said page beautiful then I translated it both into English and into French. Now my book is being offered to fellow translators from anywhere for translation into any language. Apparently no one has wanted to do this translation up to now, but translating poetry is really something difficult and no translator should ever wish to get either rich or famous by translating my book. I can understand this universal rejection my book is getting, since I don't feel like translating myself it into any of my languages, despite all freedom of expression I would enjoy under such circumstances. The number of poetry books Ive at the site is small and that of translations for poetry is smaller still.Ive been a translator by trade since 1985. In such a capacity I have already translated practically everything thinkable all along, like technical stuff of almost all kinds, material for internal use in great companies, academic stuff, and so on, including some books.My average of books translated per year was zero dot something until last year, before I found this interesting possibility, since in thirty full years I had translated, in all, less than thirty books, some of which I never knew whether they have been published or not.After finding Babelcube, everything changed.Hitherto, Ive already signed seven contracts for book translation with them, five of these I have already translated, four of which have already been published, and three of them were rated with five stars by their
respective authors.My very first translation there was an American work titled How to Publish Your Book, by Justin Sachs that I translated into Portuguese. It is an interesting book full of useful tips for writers, like how to write a good query letter to publishers and a lot more. Especially interesting for indie writers who intend to reach the American market, obviously. This translation is still waiting for publication, as I still see in my page concerning this book.Then I picked another American work to translate into Portuguese, The long Cutie, by Dan Alatorre. This has finally been published a couple of weeks ago, to the complete relief of my attendance anxiety. I also liked to see the five-star rating given by this author there with a comment that read: "Great job! Highly recommended". I began to like this kind of tiresome but very interesting game.Next I picked an Italian author, Roberto Coppola, whose original book is titled Anche Tu Poliglotta. I also translated that into Portuguese and the book is now published as Voce Tambem Poliglota in my translation. It brings lots of tips for self-taught polyglot studies, assesses and suggests some methods to follow and offers an interesting and flexible plan through which any person can reach an upper intermediate level of communication in four languages by studying each for about six months. This author also gave me five stars there for the translation I did.After this I translated a Spanish author, Jose Vicente Alfaro, who wrote an interesting novel, El Llanto de la Isla de Pascua into Portuguese. The work was completed within the contracted term and is finally published.Meanwhile, a Brazilian author called Johann Heyss invited me to translate his book Iniciacao a Numerologia, into Italian. It was my first invitation by an author, in the previous works I chose the book and proposed the translation. He is a translator himself and his mentioned book has already an English version (done by himself), plus a French, a German and a Spanish one. Of course he could have invited an Italian translator from those with a Babelcube profile and he doesnt know me at all outside the Babelcube context. I underwent the whole process, translated a ten-page sample he approved and after this we signed the contract. Im still working in this book, for which I asked a comfortable deadline and, if necessary, I can always request an extension.Well, foreign authors also seem to have liked my profile. For instance, an Italian, Demetrio Verbaro, requested my translation of a novel he wrote, Il Carico della Formica into French. Then again, he could easily have chosen a native French translator for this work, but he chose me, and eventually a contract was signed. Now I find myself translating a book from a foreign language into another. Luckily I can count on a francophone girl as a partner to read my translation trough and weed out my misspellings, grammar mistakes and stuff of this kind. Her name isnt in the standard agreement signed, though; she hasnt joined Babelcube yet. But weve
had some previous partnership experiences mainly with translations involving French before and never had any kind of problem concerning either work or money.The seventh contract I signed this year was for a book of poems written in Spanish by Mois Benarroch. His poems in Esquina en Tetuan are very good to read in the Spanish original. I proposed its translation into Portuguese because I have always wanted to translate poetry and then see the translation published. Everything ran smoothly enough and after getting this last contract I did the translation at a good clip, to my own surprise. Now there is one more book published and I also got my third five-star author rating.I dont have the slightest idea of what financial benefits Ill get from this translation rush I decided and had the opportunity to enter this year. Too early to know and theres no point in trying any guesstimate. Each new book launched will perform as the Market wishes. No minimum sales guarantee is possible, as far as I know. I believe some of these books stand a chance of selling relatively well, in which case Ill have my efforts decently rewarded, at long last. My expectations are not unrealistic, however. It is sensible to expect results compatible with my efforts but in fact there is no telling. Even if all my translations end up performing lamely in terms of sales, at least Ill still have a good number of recent works to bear witness to my stamina, my linguistic versatility and competence, etc., and after all this will serve some purpose, at least by granting me a relative "visibility" as a translator, which no doubt means something already, in business.I have been spreading the news about this work through internet sites like some social networks, even through my blogs. I know this alone doesnt represent much of a publicity effort, but Im convinced some sort of positive effect will end up showing its face.By the way, you can visit my public Babelcube profile:http://www.babelcube.com/user/joao-batista-esteves-alves
Desejamos convidar a todos para participar da nossa grande festa de Consagracao de Obreiros, para Diacono e Presbitero, o Pastor consagrante sera o Pr. Jose de Oliveira, Eusebio, e ocorrera no dia 26 JAN 2013, as 19h00, na nossa Igreja Sede.Nao faltem... Foi aberta mais uma igreja da Assembleia de Deus - Templo Central II, em Maranguape, a Congregacao do Mororo, tendo como Supervisor o Presbitero Evandro.Logo mais estaremos atualizando em nosso blog o endereco deste nova congregacao.Que Deus possa abencoar grandemente os irmaos...Paz... Caros irmaos e amigos,Queria pedir desculpa por nao ter atualizado nosso blog esses ultimos meses, mais foi por motivo de forca maior, entretanto, essa proxima semana estarei atualizando novamente.Obrigado pela paciencia e Paz. 4a Feira ocorreu nossa Santa Ceia, foi uma grande festa.Estiveram presentes os Pastores Raimundo N. Pedrosa - Igreja de Sao G. do Amarante e Daniel - Igreja de Taua.Estiveram, ainda, alguns Cantores, Ev. Josiel entre outros.Foi uma grande festa ao senhor. No proximo domingo ocorrera nosso grande Culto de Missao.Estao todos convidados.Ainda, lembrando a todos os obreiros do campo, ocorrera, tambem, domingo nossa Reuniao de Obreiros que sera na Congregacao do Papara. NAO FALTEM... Dia 21 e 22 de julho estamos comemorando 10 anos do Conjunto de Jovem Harmonia Celeste, na Congregacao de Novo Parque Iracema, todos estao convidados.Paz. Banda Filhos do ReiBanda Filhos do ReiConjunto de Senhoras LagesPleletor Pb. JosielBencao de DeusSandy so observandoConjunto de Senhoras - Lages Eu ja passei da idade de ter um tipo fisico de homem ideal para eu me relacionar. Antes, so se fosse estranho (bem estranho). Tivesse um figurino perturbado. Gostasse de rock mais que tudo. Tivesse no minimo um piercing (e uma tatuagem gigante). Soubesse tocar algum instrumento. E usasse All Star. Uma coisa meio Dave Grohl.Hoje em dia eu continuo insistindo no quesito All Star e rock n roll, mas confesso que muita coisa mudou. E, pessoal, nao tem jeito. Relacionamento a gente constroi. Dia apos dia. Dosando paciencia, silencios e longas conversas. Engracado que quando a gente para de acreditar em amor da vida, um amor pra vida da gente aparece. Sem o glamour da alma gemea. Sem as promessas de ser pra sempre. Sem borboletas no estomago. Sem noites de insonia. E uma coisa simples do tipo: voce conhece o cara. Comeca, aos poucos, a admira-lo. A acha-lo FODA.E, quando ve, voce ta fazendo coracaozinho com a mao igual uma pangare. (E escrevendo textos no blog para que ele entenda uma coisa: dessa vez, meu caro, e DIFERENTE). Adeus expectativas irreais, adeus sonhos de adolescente. Ele vai esquecer todo mes o aniversario de namoro, mas vai se lembrar sempre que voce gosta do seu pao-de-sal bem branco (e com muito queijo). Ele nao vai fazer declaracoes romanticas e jantares a luz de vela, mas vai saber que voce esta de TPM no primeiro Oi, te perdoando docemente de qualquer frase dita com mais rispidez...Ah, gente, sei la. Descobri que gosto mesmo e do tal amor. DA PAIXAO, NAO. Depois de anos escrevendo sobre querer alguem que me tire o chao, que me roube o
ar, venho humildemente me retificar. EU QUERO ALGUEM QUE DIVIDA O CHAO COMIGO. QUERO ALGUEM QUE ME TRAGA FOLEGO. Entenderam? Quero dormir abracada sem susto. Quero acordar e ver que (aconteca o que acontecer), tudo vai estar em seu lugar. Sem ansiedades. Sem montanhas-russas.Antes eu achava que, se nao tivesse paixao, eu iria parar de escrever, minha inspiracao iria acabar e meus futuros livros iriam pra secao B da auto-ajuda, com um monte de margaridinhas na capa. Mas, CARAMBA! Descobri que nao e nada disso. Nao existe nada mais contestador do que amar uma pessoa so. Amar e ser rebelde. E atravessar o escuro. E, no meu caso, mudar o conceito de tudo o que ja pensei que pudesse ser amor. Nao, antes era paixao. Antes era imaturidade.Antes era uma procura por mim mesma que nao tinha acontecido. Sei que ja falei muito sobre amor, acho que e o grande tema da vida da gente. Mas amor nao e so poesia e refroes. Amor e RECONSTRUCAO. E ritmo. Pausas. Desafinos. E desafios. Demorei anos pra concordar com meu querido (e sempre citado) Cazuza: eu quero um amor tranquilo, com sabor de fruta mordida. Antes, ao ouvir essa musica, eu sempre pensava (e nao dizia): porra, que tedio!Ah, Cazuza! Ele sabia.. Paixao e para os fracos. Mas amar? ah, o amor.. AMAR E PUNK.