A quality comparison between authorial and ChatGPT English translations of “Bong hong cai ao” by Zen master Thích Nhất Hạnh based on house’s translation quality assessment model

This study compares the quality of two English translations of short essay “Bong hong cai ao” (source text - ST) by Thich Nhat Hanh: the authorial translation (target text 1 - TT1) and a ChatGPT translation (target text 2 - TT2), using House’ 1997 Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) Model. A qualitative method with descriptive and contrastive analysis was used to find differences in field, tenor, mode, and genre. The result shows that, the genre of a personal reflective essay is maintained in both TTs, and both deliver an overt translation of the original text. While TT2 ensures the literal meaning of the ST, it lacks the cultural nuances used to describe Vietnamese old mothers such as the closeness, softness, and sweetness. These are better conveyed in TT1. Beside cultural challenges, the differences between the ST and TTs also result from simplification, and phrase shortening through omission and pronoun replacement.