Thanks, Christine. Yes, literary translation is an impossible task in many ways. The only way you can achieve an equivalent effect in terms of both style and meaning is by making more changes than you probably feel comfortable with. You're damned either way.

But as I say, those conundrums can (and often do) crop up even in theoretically 'simpler' texts, like a tourist information leaflet.

And often the the only way to know what is meant comes from intangible, unexpressed familiarity with the subject and its culture.

The AI was quite right to translate 'orujo' as 'pomace' in one sense: it does mean that, and clearly to proudce the drink, you have to produce the by-product first.

But that's not what the author meant.

And even if had identified that, it would still have gone with 'pomace brandy' fromits dictionary. Again correct. But 'wrong'.

Funnily enough, a more basic system with a more limited dictionary would just leave the original word, which might be better, but would have done it without realising why.

BTW, there's a very good piece by Cory Doctorow about AI in the Hollywood writers' dispute and more generally which I read this morning. I'll find the link and post it here in this thread.