[bo-zh] Recipe to generate translations in modern and classical Chinese [wiki]

Jennifer_Yo1 · April 27, 2025, 11:46am

Models and approaches tested:

Qwen 2.5 - performs very poorly with Buddhist content, halucinates a lot with verses
Claude Sonnet 3.7 - most consistant translations but doesn’t use the right linking words in classical Chinese verses
Gemini Pro - …
Gemini Flash - …
DeepSeek R1 - …
Grounding in ZH translation of formal analysis - translations of the gloss are often wrong and negatively affect the final translations

Future tests

prompt Claude to use good linking words in verses

Current best manual recipe (3 steps, 2 models) :

a) Generation of semantic interpretation in English:

Claude 3.7 with Tibetan source

Prompt 1 - zero-shot translation:

Translate the following verse:

<Tibetan verse>

Prompt 2 - semantic interpretation

Give me a word by word gloss as a vertical list, as well as a ucca representation formatted as a text tree for the above

Example for a)

Prompt 1:

Translate the following verse:
མི་ཆོས་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཁྱུ་ནས་ལིང་གིས་བུད། །ཆོས་བརྒྱད་བྲལ་བའི་སྤྲང་པོའི་ངང་ཚུལ་གྱིས། །བཀའ་གདམས་གོང་མའི་རྗེས་སུ་སྙེག་པ་ཡི། །བུད་སྙེག་ཐོབ་པ་གསུམ་ལ་དབང་འབྱོར་ཤོག །

Response 1:

Here’s my translation of this Tibetan verse:

Expelled from the flock of those striving for worldly dharma,
In the manner of a beggar free from the eight worldly concerns,
Following in the footsteps of the Kadampa masters of old—
May the three attainments of expulsion, following, and realization be mastered.

This verse expresses a traditional Buddhist ideal of renunciation. The “eight worldly concerns” refers to gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, fame and disgrace. The author wishes to be free from these worldly preoccupations, following the example of the Kadampa tradition founded by Atisha and his disciples. The “three attainments” mentioned at the end represent stages on the path: being expelled from conventional society, following genuine spiritual teachers, and ultimately realizing spiritual attainment.

Prompt 2:

Give me a word by word gloss as a vertical list, as well as a ucca representation formatted as a text tree for the above

Response 2:

I’ll provide a word-by-word gloss and then a UCCA (Universal Conceptual Cognitive Annotation) representation.

Word-by-word gloss:

མི་ཆོས་ - mi chos - worldly dharma/human dharma
སྒྲུབ་པའི་ - drub pa’i - practicing (genitive)
ཁྱུ་ - khyu - flock/herd
ནས་ - nas - from (ablative)
ལིང་གིས་ - ling gis - expelled/cast out (instrumental)
བུད - bud - expelled/removed
ཆོས་བརྒྱད་ - chos brgyad - eight dharmas/worldly concerns
བྲལ་བའི་ - dral wa’i - free from (genitive)
སྤྲང་པོའི་ - drang po’i - beggar’s (genitive)
ངང་ཚུལ་ - ngang tshul - manner/way
གྱིས - gyis - by/with (instrumental)
བཀའ་གདམས་ - ka dams - Kadampa
གོང་མའི་ - gong ma’i - former/ancient (genitive)
རྗེས་སུ་ - rjes su - following after
སྙེག་པ་ - nyeg pa - following/pursuing
ཡི - yi - of (genitive)
བུད་སྙེག་ - bud nyeg - expulsion and following
ཐོབ་པ་ - thob pa - attainment
གསུམ་ - sum - three
ལ - la - to/in (locative)
དབང་འབྱོར་ - wang jor - mastery/power
ཤོག - shog - may/let (optative)

UCCA text tree representation:

(S
(P1 [Expelled from the flock of those striving for worldly dharma,]
(A [མི་ཆོས་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཁྱུ་ནས་]
(C [མི་ཆོས་]
(E “worldly dharma”))
(E [སྒྲུབ་པའི་]
(F “practicing”))
(C [ཁྱུ་]
(C “flock”))
(R [ནས་]
(R “from”)))
(P [ལིང་གིས་བུད]
(D [ལིང་གིས་]
(S “expelled”))
(P [བུད]
(S “expelled”))))
(P2 [In the manner of a beggar free from the eight worldly concerns,]
(A [ཆོས་བརྒྱད་བྲལ་བའི་སྤྲང་པོའི་]
(E [ཆོས་བརྒྱད་]
(C “eight worldly concerns”))
(S [བྲལ་བའི་]
(S “free from”))
(C [སྤྲང་པོའི་]
(A “beggar’s”)))
(D [ངང་ཚུལ་གྱིས]
(C [ངང་ཚུལ་]
(C “manner”))
(R [གྱིས]
(R “by/with”))))
(P3 [Following in the footsteps of the Kadampa masters of old]
(A [བཀའ་གདམས་གོང་མའི་]
(E [བཀའ་གདམས་]
(E “Kadampa”))
(E [གོང་མའི་]
(E “ancient/former”)))
(P [རྗེས་སུ་སྙེག་པ་ཡི]
(D [རྗེས་སུ་]
(D “following after”))
(P [སྙེག་པ་]
(S “following”))
(R [ཡི]
(R “of”))))
(P4 [May the three attainments of expulsion, following, and realization be mastered]
(A [བུད་སྙེག་ཐོབ་པ་གསུམ་]
(C [བུད་སྙེག་ཐོབ་པ་]
(C “expulsion-following-attainment”))
(Q [གསུམ་]
(Q “three”)))
(A [ལ]
(R “to/in”))
(P [དབང་འབྱོར་ཤོག]
(C [དབང་འབྱོར་]
(C “mastery”))
(F [ཤོག]
(F “may/let”)))))

Note: In the UCCA representation, I’ve used the standard UCCA labels:

S: Scene (main relation)

P: Process

A: Participant

C: Center

E: Elaborator

F: Function

D: Adverbial

R: Relator

Q: Quantifier

b) Generation of Plain Chinese translation:

Claude 3.7 with Tibetan source + formal analysis in English (gloss + UCCA tree)

Prompt 1 - zero-shot translation:

Translate the following verse in metered Chinese:
<Tibetan verse>

Prompt 2 - revision with formal analysis:

Here's an analysis of this verse. Use it to check the accuracy of the above translation. Revise and update the initial translation as verse with four 7-character lines. Give me a plain Chinese version.

Word-by-word gloss:
<word by word>

UCCA text tree representation:

<UCCA tree>

Note: In the UCCA representation, I've used the standard UCCA labels:
- S: Scene (main relation)
- P: Process 
- A: Participant
- C: Center
- E: Elaborator
- F: Function
- D: Adverbial
- R: Relator
- Q: Quantifier

Example for b)

Prompt 1:

Translate the following verse in metered Chinese:

མི་ཆོས་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཁྱུ་ནས་ལིང་གིས་བུད། །ཆོས་བརྒྱད་བྲལ་བའི་སྤྲང་པོའི་ངང་ཚུལ་གྱིས། །བཀའ་གདམས་གོང་མའི་རྗེས་སུ་སྙེག་པ་ཡི། །བུད་སྙེག་ཐོབ་པ་གསུམ་ལ་དབང་འབྱོར་ཤོག །

Response 1:

I’ll translate this Tibetan verse into metered Chinese verse, aiming to preserve both the meaning and poetic structure.

Here’s the translation:

世法群中我逐出，
八法纷扰已全除。
随古贤者噶当教，
三种证悟愿自主。

This maintains the meaning while following traditional Chinese poetic structure (七言四句). The verse speaks about:

Being expelled from the crowd pursuing worldly dharmas

Being free from the eight worldly concerns

Following the ancient Kadampa masters’ teachings

Aspiring to achieve mastery over three attainments

Would you like me to provide a more literal translation or explain the meaning of specific terms?

Prompt 2:

Here's an analysis of this verse. Use it to check the accuracy of the above translation. Revise and update the initial translation as verse with four longer 9-character lines. Give me a plain Chinese version

Word-by-word gloss:

མི་ཆོས་ - mi chos - worldly dharma/human dharma
སྒྲུབ་པའི་ - drub pa'i - practicing (genitive)
ཁྱུ་ - khyu - flock/herd
ནས་ - nas - from (ablative)
ལིང་གིས་ - ling gis - expelled/cast out (instrumental)
བུད - bud - expelled/removed
ཆོས་བརྒྱད་ - chos brgyad - eight dharmas/worldly concerns
བྲལ་བའི་ - dral wa'i - free from (genitive)
སྤྲང་པོའི་ - drang po'i - beggar's (genitive)
ངང་ཚུལ་ - ngang tshul - manner/way
གྱིས - gyis - by/with (instrumental)
བཀའ་གདམས་ - ka dams - Kadampa
གོང་མའི་ - gong ma'i - former/ancient (genitive)
རྗེས་སུ་ - rjes su - following after
སྙེག་པ་ - nyeg pa - following/pursuing
ཡི - yi - of (genitive)
བུད་སྙེག་ - bud nyeg - expulsion and following
ཐོབ་པ་ - thob pa - attainment
གསུམ་ - sum - three
ལ - la - to/in (locative)
དབང་འབྱོར་ - wang jor - mastery/power
ཤོག - shog - may/let (optative)

UCCA text tree representation:

(S
  (P1 [Expelled from the flock of those striving for worldly dharma,]
    (A [མི་ཆོས་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཁྱུ་ནས་]
      (C [མི་ཆོས་]
        (E "worldly dharma"))
      (E [སྒྲུབ་པའི་]
        (F "practicing"))
      (C [ཁྱུ་]
        (C "flock"))
      (R [ནས་]
        (R "from")))
    (P [ལིང་གིས་བུད]
      (D [ལིང་གིས་]
        (S "expelled"))
      (P [བུད]
        (S "expelled"))))
  (P2 [In the manner of a beggar free from the eight worldly concerns,]
    (A [ཆོས་བརྒྱད་བྲལ་བའི་སྤྲང་པོའི་]
      (E [ཆོས་བརྒྱད་]
        (C "eight worldly concerns"))
      (S [བྲལ་བའི་]
        (S "free from"))
      (C [སྤྲང་པོའི་]
        (A "beggar's")))
    (D [ངང་ཚུལ་གྱིས]
      (C [ངང་ཚུལ་]
        (C "manner"))
      (R [གྱིས]
        (R "by/with"))))
  (P3 [Following in the footsteps of the Kadampa masters of old]
    (A [བཀའ་གདམས་གོང་མའི་]
      (E [བཀའ་གདམས་]
        (E "Kadampa"))
      (E [གོང་མའི་]
        (E "ancient/former")))
    (P [རྗེས་སུ་སྙེག་པ་ཡི]
      (D [རྗེས་སུ་]
        (D "following after"))
      (P [སྙེག་པ་]
        (S "following"))
      (R [ཡི]
        (R "of"))))
  (P4 [May the three attainments of expulsion, following, and realization be mastered]
    (A [བུད་སྙེག་ཐོབ་པ་གསུམ་]
      (C [བུད་སྙེག་ཐོབ་པ་]
        (C "expulsion-following-attainment"))
      (Q [གསུམ་]
        (Q "three")))
    (A [ལ]
      (R "to/in"))
    (P [དབང་འབྱོར་ཤོག]
      (C [དབང་འབྱོར་]
        (C "mastery"))
      (F [ཤོག]
        (F "may/let")))))

Note: In the UCCA representation, I've used the standard UCCA labels:
- S: Scene (main relation)
- P: Process 
- A: Participant
- C: Center
- E: Elaborator
- F: Function
- D: Adverbial
- R: Relator
- Q: Quantifier

Response 2:

Based on the detailed analysis you provided, I’ll revise the translation to create four 9-character lines that better capture the meaning, especially noting the important concept of བུད་སྙེག་ཐོབ་པ་གསུམ་ (three attainments of expulsion, following, and realization).

Here’s the revised translation in 9-character verse:

世法人群中被逐出，
八种尘劳如乞丐离，
追随噶当古德足迹，
愿得三成就自在力。

Plain Chinese version:

从追求世俗法的人群中被驱逐出来，
以像乞丐那样远离八种世俗执着的方式，
追随古代噶当派大师们的足迹，
愿我能掌握驱逐、追随、证悟这三种成就的力量。

The three attainments (བུད་སྙེག་ཐོབ་པ་གསུམ་) refer to:

བུད (expulsion) - being expelled from worldly pursuits

སྙེག (following) - following the ancient masters

ཐོབ་པ (attainment/realization) - achieving realization

This is a more accurate reflection of the spiritual journey described in the verse, where being expelled from worldly concerns and following the masters’ path leads to realization.

c) Classical Chinese translation:

DeepSeek V3 with Plain Chinese Translation + formal analysis in English (gloss + UCCA tree)

Prompt:

請將以下佛教經文嚴格改寫為「四句七言」的標準偈頌體：
1. 每句7字，共4句28字
2. 保持原意不增減，優先保留「專業術語」
3. 可調整語序但不得合併/刪除原句
4. 韻腳處理：二四句押平聲韻（如需調整請說明）
5. 輸出時分行排列，標明序號

待改寫原文：

<Plain Chinese Translation>

以下是作為額外背景的文本的詳細分析：
<English analysis>

Observation:

Translating the formal anlalysis gloss and UCCA into the target language doesn’t work as the english to chinese translation of word-by word gloss is often wrong

Example for c)