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Le Monde.fr : Le maigre bilan de l'action de Tony Blair au Proche-Orient Le Monde.fr: Skimpy results for Tony Blair in the Near East
Nommé en juillet 2007 représentant du Quartet (Etats-Unis, Union européenne, Russie et ONU), Tony Blair a pris ses fonctions en septembre. Sa mission avait été définie dans une lettre des dix ministres des affaires étrangères des Etats du sud de l'Europe membres de l'UE.Appointed in July 2007 representative of the Quartet (USA, EU, UN and Russia), Tony Blair took office in September. His mission was defined in a letter of the ten foreign ministers of the southern European EU member states.
Il s'agissait d'oeuvrer à la création d'un Etat palestinien en "obtenant d'Israël des mesures concrètes et immédiates". "Il est trop tard pour tergiverser... L'occasion est historique. C'est peut-être la dernière", disait sa lettre de mission. Huit mois plus tard, M. Blair a expliqué, mardi 13 mai, lors d'une conférence de presse, ce qu'il avait obtenu de ses interlocuteurs israéliens. Le bilan est plutôt maigre, mais l'ancien premier ministre britannique estime que "c'est un premier pas, un test soumis à la mise en application sur le terrain".It was to work towards the creation of a Palestinian state in "obtaining from Israel immediate and concrete measures" . "It is too late to procrastinate ... The opportunity is historic. It is perhaps the last" , stated the assignment. Eight months later, on Tuesday, May 13, Mr. Blair explained at a press conference what he had obtained from his Israeli interlocutors. The record is rather meager, but the former British prime minister believes that "this is a first step, a test subject to the implementation on the ground" .
Tony Blair a reconnu qu'il avait négocié d'arrache-pied avec l'équipe d'Ehoud Barak, ministre de la défense, afin de pouvoir obtenir des résultats concrets "même s'il reste beaucoup à faire".
Tony Blair acknowledged he had negotiated hard with the team of Ehud Barak, Minister of Defence, in order to obtain concrete results "even if much remains to be done ".
La précipitation avec laquelle ces quelques avancées ont été négociées et annoncées n'est sans doute pas étrangère à la venue de George Bush, mercredi, à Jérusalem, pour le 60e anniversaire de la création d'Israël. Une visite de trois jours au cours de laquelle le président américain souhaite "encourager" le processus de paix. "Les Etats-Unis ne peuvent pas imposer la paix... Je n'essaie pas d'obtenir le prix Nobel de la paix, a-t-il dit à la presse israélienne avant sa venue.The haste with which these forward steps have been negotiated and announced is probably not without relation to the arrival of George Bush, Wednesday in Jerusalem, for the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel. A three-day visit during which the U.S. president wants "encourage" the peace process. "The USA cannot impose peace ... I'm not out to get the Nobel Peace Prize ," he told the Israeli press before his arrival.
Comme aucun progrès significatif n'a été réalisé depuis la conférence d'Annapolis (Maryland) le 27 novembre 2007, il fallait bien faire état de quelques mouvements réconfortants car, comme l'a souligné un diplomate, "c'est plutôt "Panique à bord !" chez les Américains". <...>As no significant progress has been made since the conference in Annapolis (Maryland) on November 27, 2007, something comforting had to be done because, as pointed out by a diplomat , "it's kind of "Panic Stations!" for the Americans" . <...>
En ce qui concerne la levée des check-points réclamée avec insistance par l'Autorité palestinienne, l'accent a été mis sur douze d'entre eux, considérés par le Quartet comme "stratégiques" alors qu'il en existe près de 600. Quatre d'entre eux devraient être supprimés et les autres réaménagés afin d'accélérer le passage des Palestiniens. <...>Regarding the removal of check-points insistently claimed by the Palestinian Authority, emphasis was placed on twelve of them, considered by the Quartet as "strategic" , though there are almost 600 of them. Four of them are slated to disappear and the others reorganised in order to speed up the passage of Palestinians. <...>
Pompeusement baptisés "vers un Etat palestinien", ces projets ne sont, comme l'a reconnu M. Blair, qu'un modeste début afin de desserrer l'étau de l'occupation.Pompously baptized "towards a Palestinian state" , these projects are, as acknowledged by Mr. Blair, no more than a modest beginning to loosen the grip of the occupation.


When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 01:05:08 PM EST
Did you translate this yourself or did you use translation software?

If the latter, how well did the software work?

A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run

by ATinNM on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 01:53:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I use "someone"'s Firefox extension TribExt, that does Scoop-friendly html and allows you to use Google Translate.

I find you must do some work on the translation or it's gobbledegook. How much work depends. I probably edited 20-30% of this one, a bit less on the Facebook article below (but that was written in English first, I think, and translated into French). Yesterday I had to rewrite most of a piece for the Salon.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:04:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks.

That's my experience with Google's Language Tools as well.

A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run

by ATinNM on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:13:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Here's what Babelfish just gave me for the first paragraph:

Named in July 2007 representative of Four-bit byte (the United States, European Union, Russia and UNO), Tony Blair took her functions in September. Its mission had been defined in a letter of the ten Foreign Ministers of the States of the south of l' Europe members of l' EU.

Four-bit byte indeed.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:19:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I see Babelfish doesn't do semantics.

When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:23:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Or gender concordance.

When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:24:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Google doesn't do gender either (any more than l' or d').

But it did get the Quartet. Which suggests it's got a better contextual algorithm of some sort.

It's all still a long way from automatic AND readable.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 03:16:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
An early version of Google translation did do semantics. It translated Sarkozy (French) to Blair (English)....
by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Thu May 15th, 2008 at 04:13:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]
That's the well known result of a one-to-one or one-to-{defined} translation paradigm.  

Translation software systems have to abstract Rules for language use in order to get anything done.  Actual language use gives a big neener-neener to those abstractions, unfortunately.  Not only are the relationships one-to-many toss in the Semantic Differential and it looks pretty darn hopeless.

On the other hand, humans are able to Speak Much Good so there's got to be some way to solve it.  Suggesting them wot are working on the problem (not me, BTW) are looking in the wrong place(s) for solutions.

A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run

by ATinNM on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:51:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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