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Machine translation of Sanskrit

In 2022, Google finally added Sanskrit to its machine translation program: “Sanskrit is the number one, most requested language at Google Translate, and we are finally adding it”

However, copying and moving devanagari script around is not always simple.

Here I tried to copy the following from a textual PDF (a sloka in the Bhagavad Gita) :

Sanskrit text screenshot

and got this:

नयादत्तक कस्यशचत्पयाप श न चवैव सभकवृतश शवभभव।

अजयानकनयाववृतश जयानश तकन मभह्यननत जनतवव।। 5.15।।

which is rather different – letters have been skipped and replaced willy-nilly.

A translation of the original given in the PDF is : The Omniscient neither accepts anybody’s sin nor even virtue. Knowledge remains covered by ignorance; thereby the creatures become deluded.

Google struggles to make sense of the garbled text thus:

There is nothing wrong with the judge and nothing else. Ajay’s daughter is covered with Jayansha’s technique. 5.15.

(Horrible, but convincing on the face of it).

I was more or less able to overcome the problem by transliterating the actual letters back into Devanagari, as in: नादत्ते कस्यचित्पपम् नचैव सुकूतम् विभु which Google rendered as The Lord does not take away anyone’s sin or goodness This seems to be a viable translation candidate – it would be necessary to compare a few translations to see how it is usually rendered.

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