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the fascinating part is how LLMs can sometimes surface meanings the original author didn't consciously intend but were latent in their word choices. like how a good translator might catch cultural implications the author took for granted. /4

But also, the good translator, fully trained on the frozen meaning in the author's work, is interpreting it for the audience of their own day and culture. Tolkein's translation of Beowulf is different from Heaney's.

exactly - the translator becomes a bridge between eras and cultures, not just languages. each translation carries forward certain meanings while inevitably leaving others behind. LLMs might be doing similar cultural translation, filtering historical texts through contemporary patterns.

There's also something about Tolkein's academic approach to translation - careful, supervised, with extensive glossary and Heaney's - free, unexplained, poetic, that speaks to the different facets of your community and mission.