First experiments with Claude 3.7 Sonnet

[Tom Gally]

Anthropic released Claude 3.7 Sonnet yesterday. It has a new “extended thinking” function that seems, in my initial testing, to be unsettlingly powerful for some tasks.

I tried it just now with translation. I gave it the entire text of the following novel with the furigana stripped out:

https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000800/files/51211_53589.html

and gave it this prompt:

I have attached the text of an early 20th century Japanese novel. I want to work together with you to produce a translation of this novel that is faithful to the original, that reads smoothly and enjoyably in English, and that has a distinctive and consistent writing style. You and I are going to work together on this, exchanging ideas and suggestions about overall translation strategies and about how to handle particular expressions. You will be very self-critical and self-aware when doing the translation: you will consider whether you truly understand each part of the Japanese correctly or not, and if you are unsure you will ask me about those problematic parts and we will discuss them together. You will also be similarly cautious about your choices for specific translations. After we have decided our approach to this translation project, we will work through it chapter by chapter, revising and polishing as we go. Please begin by reading the novel. Then describe your proposal about how we should approach this translation.

This was its response:

I've read the novel "大阪の宿" (The Osaka Inn) by Mizukami Takitaro, completed in 1925 during the Taisho period. This is a fascinating work that follows the life of Mita, a company employee and aspiring novelist, during his stay at the Suigetsu Inn in Osaka. The novel richly depicts the social dynamics and characters at the inn, including the distinctive maids, fellow lodgers, the innkeeper and his wife, while also exploring Mita's relationships with his friend Tahara and a geisha called Mamba.

For our translation approach, I propose the following:

1. Stylistic consistency: The novel has a naturalistic, observational style that captures the nuances of human behavior. I suggest we maintain this tone while making it accessible to contemporary English readers. The narrative voice is detached yet intimate—we should preserve this quality.
2. Dialogue treatment: The novel features extensive dialogue with distinct Osaka dialect. Rather than attempt to replicate this with an English regional dialect (which would create inappropriate associations), I suggest we convey the Osaka speech patterns through informal contractions, distinctive word choices, and occasionally altered sentence structures, while adding subtle notes about speech patterns where relevant.
3. Cultural context: The novel contains many culturally specific elements (geisha culture, inn customs, social hierarchies of the period). I propose we preserve these elements rather than domesticate them, providing minimal clarification within the text where necessary.
4. Character voices: Each character has a distinctive way of speaking. I'll pay special attention to maintaining these differences in English, particularly with characters like Mamba the geisha, Otsuki the maid, and Tahara.
5. Chapter-by-chapter approach: As you suggested, we'll translate chapter by chapter, discussing challenging passages and revising as we go.
6. Title translation: I propose "The Osaka Inn" as the English title, though we could also consider "Lodgings in Osaka" or "The Inn at Osaka" if you prefer.

Would you like to proceed with this approach? I'm particularly interested in your thoughts on how to handle the Osaka dialect and whether you have any specific preferences for the translation style.

I had it go ahead and translate the first short chapter. Here are the comments it appended after its translation:

Translation Issues to Discuss:

1. Title translation: I chose "The Osaka Inn" but other possibilities include "An Inn in Osaka" or "Lodgings in Osaka." The original title is simple and direct, so I went with a straightforward English equivalent.
2. Atmosphere and tone: I tried to capture the somewhat detached yet observant narrative voice. Did I succeed in conveying the right tone?
3. Cultural elements: I kept terms like "oden shop" without explanation. Should I add brief contextual descriptions for items like this that might be unfamiliar to English readers?
4. Descriptive phrases: The Japanese has some poetic descriptions, particularly of the sky and river. I attempted to preserve the imagery while making it read naturally in English.
5. Dialogue translation: The drunk old man speaks in a distinctive way in the original. I indicated his speech characteristics by mentioning his "thick lips" and "too long" tongue rather than trying to create an equivalent dialect in English.
6. Pace and flow: The original has fairly long, descriptive sentences. I maintained this in some places but broke up others for readability in English. Does this approach work for the translation?
7. Specific phrase: "夥しい煤煙の爲めに、年中どんよりした感じのする大阪の空" - I rendered this as "The Osaka sky, normally heavy with a perpetual haze of soot," but I wonder if this fully captures the sense of perpetual gloom conveyed in the original.

Would you like me to approach any of these elements differently in future sections?

I had it do a few more chapters, but then I hit its context window. I haven’t checked the translations it did up to that point, but at a glance they seem quite readable. The only mistakes I spotted were the reading of the author’s surname at the beginning (Minakami, not Mizukami); of the name of a character named 米, which the furigana (which I hadn't provided) identify as Yone, not Kome; and of the name of the geisha, who is called not Mamba but Uwabami (蟒). Those misreadings are not surprising, since I had provided no furigana, but it should have asked me about them.

Earlier today, I had it produce a chapter-by-chapter summary of the same novel in English with the characters identified as just A, B, C, etc. I then started a new chat and gave it this prompt:

Attached is the outline of a Japanese novel. I want you to write an original novel in English using the same sorts of themes and characters as in this novel. However, in your novel, the setting will be New York City in the 1970s and the characters and their roles and their lives will be appropriate for that place and period. Make your novel engaging and atmospheric and structure it so that the reader wants to keep reading from beginning to end. Aim for a serious, moderately literary style. Write at length. Make it a full novel.

It produced an eighty-thousand-word story. The first draft looked kind of bland, so I gave it eight pages of text from three writers with distinctive styles (Raymond Chandler, Philip Roth, and A.J. Liebling) and gave it this prompt:

Now I would like you to rewrite that novel with a more distinctive style. I have attached a text file containing three excerpts from books by writers I admire, each with a different style. Please analyze them and think about what aspects of their vocabulary, sentence formation, register, irony, and wit make their writing distinctive and enjoyable to read. Inspired by them, create your own distinctive writing style. Then rewrite the latest version of the novel you just completed in your new distinctive style. You can keep the story basically the same, but you can add, delete, and revise passages as you see fit. After you have finished rewriting it, read it through and revise it twice more to make sure that the story is still coherent and cohesive and that your style is reasonably consistent.

Its response:

Thank you for sharing these wonderful writing samples! I'll analyze each excerpt's style and create a distinctive voice for a revised version of "The Chelsea Winter."

The first excerpt (likely Raymond Chandler) features sharp, sensory-rich observations, unexpected metaphors ("The minutes went by on tiptoe, with their fingers to their lips"), and a precise eye for telling details. The second excerpt shows a more contemplative literary style with deeper psychological insight and carefully crafted sentences that explore memory and human relationships. The third excerpt (reminiscent of Joseph Mitchell) demonstrates a journalistic yet literary approach to character sketches with an affectionate attention to the idiosyncrasies of New York characters.

Drawing inspiration from these, I'll rewrite "The Chelsea Winter" with a distinctive style that combines sharp observation, psychological insight, and an affectionate yet clear-eyed portrayal of 1970s New York and its inhabitants.

It went through the revision process five or six times and didn't seem as though it would stop, so I interrupted it and asked it to recheck its latest version for consistency and coherence only. I then started reading the short novel it had written. I’ve gotten about half way through, and I hate to say it but it is pretty readable. I’ve noticed only a couple of minor logical flaws.

If anyone is interested, I put an EPUB version of it here:

https://www.gally.net/temp/20250227_The_Chelsea_Winter.epub

And, finally, a test of Claude’s sense of humor:

https://gally.net/temp/20250225claudestandup2.html

Tom Gally