Friday, July 23, 2010

lost in translation retranslation retranslation retranslation

Automated translations can be awful.  Multiply the translations and it gets awfuler.

A reader recently sent me a link to the Funny Translator site.  At the website, the reader can enter text.  Then, the site submits it to Google for translation into another language, then back to English.  Then it resubmits the text to another language... then another... then another... up to 56 times. 

The results are sometimes amusing, useless, or even insightful.  Here are some of my submissions:

Original text:
"Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow."
...56 translations later we get:
"Mary and little food, and my gray maryakaburera"

Original text:
"Betty Boata bought a bit of butter. But she said, "This butter is bitter. If I put it in my batter it will make my batter bitter!""
 ...20 translations later we get:
"I bought a house a fire truck. He said: "It is painful, if you want to test the oil in my eyes."

Original text:
"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
...30 translations later we get:
"4.7 years, the African continent is in a vegetative state, other things being equal, positive if equal conditions of freedom, new birth, our parents."

Original text:
"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday."
...56 translations later we get:
"Well, I will certainly continue to grow."

Original text:
"I like to be with you because I like being alone."
...40 translations later we get:
"Girl, I'm alone."

Original text:
"Why does everyone think I am paranoid?"
...56 translations later we get:
"Why do you feel paranoid?"

Original text:
"As for me, give me liberty or give me death."
...40 translations later we get:
"For me, give me death."

Original text:
"Hey, my armpits smell funky."
...40 translations later we get:
"Oh, the smell of armpits."

Original text:
"yada yada yada "
...50 translations later we get:
"Doctor"

Original text:
"Don't eat yellow snow."
...56 translations later we get:
"Do not eat yellow snow."
(which goes to show that some truths transcend languages and cultures)

Try it yourself- link

Thanks Andrew. :)

2 comments:

Harry Lewis said...

Sick. That is so funny. Thanks for the link

fgallopp said...

LMAO, wow i had a big laugh with this...awesome! ☺