I’m just back from a short break in Greece and straight into translator mode.
On a gate to a private house I saw a sign that read: ΜΗΝ ΚΛΕΙΝΕΤΕ ΤΗΝ ΠΟΡΤΑ.
Does the sign really say “don’t close the door”?
The usual suspects (Google Translate, DEEPL, Chatgpt 4 and 5) all rendered it as “Do not close the door.”
Now if you don’t speak Greek, you might think that’s a plausible translation. You might even think it is right.
You’d be wrong.
For various reasons…
Indeed the verb is κλείνω and so could be “close”. And the noun is πόρτα and so could be “door”. Though in English you don’t usually close doors, you shut them. So the so-called “translation” is off at the level of basic English.
What’s more interesting, though, is that the so-called “translation” completely misses the point.
The sign is not about leaving a door open. Why, after all, would you be exhorting passers-by to leave your door open?
Except there is no door in sight.
Just a gate.
The kind of gate people park in front of. The kind that needs to be kept clear.
What the Greek is doing here is something different. It is issuing a simple warning, understood by every local driver: don’t block access. Don’t leave your car here. The owner might call the police.
There is an entire layer of meaning that automated tools can’t pick up.
They don’t see the setting. They don’t ask what the sign is doing. They just match the words.
So one can reasonably ask, if they can’t get something as simple and everyday as this right, what happens when they are asked to handle legal texts with actual real-world consequences?
What happens when the language becomes specialised, or context-dependent, or deliberately ambiguous?
Legal language always comes with baggage. Legal translation done professionally is the right way to unpack it.
Carefully.
Thoughtfully.
Precisely.
That’s not something you can automate.
If you need translations of Greek legal documents in English you can rely on, reach out to us as JURTRANS TRANSLATIONS LTD.
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