October 12, 2002

10:07 AM

Lost in Translation translates any bit of text you submit back and forth between another language (French, then German, Italian, Portuguese, and finally Spanish) and English ten times - the results are a cross between the results of a game of telephone and a Nostradamus prophecy. The best part (for me) is that it shows you the de-evolution of your phrase as it gets translated back and forth.
posted by anastasiav (81 comments total)

For example, the post above translates as follows:
He lost the translation who everything translates if the text of the part, that you in both felt between a other French, the German, the Italian, the then Portuguese and the finally Spanish language () and the 10mal English object - the crosspiece between the returns the returns to him for are for is one for is of you of a game of the telephone and prophecy of Nostradamus. The piece more better possible (for my ') is that extension of the development of its expression, when to stop above they translate of two routes.
posted by anastasiav at 10:08 AM on October 12, 2002

Heh, that's pretty good. Here is the beginning of the Gettysburg Address translated.

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.

and the translation

Four points and amounts seven years, that one that had obtained to our parents in this a new continent of the nation, had understood here in the freedom and in the demand they had dedicated that all such men are manufactured.
posted by Plunge at 10:26 AM on October 12, 2002

Here's one of the most famous passages in the English Bible

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."--John 3:16

becomes

Therefore the God of the "For must appreciate the world, of that the relative one and the line that it only gave, of, that he does not die those, this one who creates, only life." eternally -- Juan 3:16
posted by jasontromm at 10:34 AM on October 12, 2002

Person in charge, _ to request the hope of my '!
posted by Stan Chin at 10:41 AM on October 12, 2002

Juan 3:16 has everything but 'He nice, the Jesus'.
posted by robself at 10:54 AM on October 12, 2002

Original English Text:
I love you.

Translated to French:
Je t'aime.

Translated back to English:
I love you.

Translated to German:
Ich liebe dich.

Translated back to English:
I love you.

Translated to Italian:
Ti amo.

Translated back to English:
I love to you.

Translated to Portuguese:
Eu amo-lhe.

Translated back to English:
I love to it.

Translated to Spanish:
Amo a él.

Translated back to English:
Master to him.
posted by the fire you left me at 10:56 AM on October 12, 2002

Think if you combine lost in translation with the Prior-Art-O-Matic seen here:

lost in translation is a pair of sunglasses that can play Mornington Crescent! It can only be operated by a trained professional.

becomes

in the translation of sun glasses, this that know to play halbmond of Mornington, lost a connection! It can be only worked of connoisseur characterized.
posted by plemeljr at 10:58 AM on October 12, 2002

Jack and Jill went up the hill,
to fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
and Jill came tumbling after.

becomes:

Jill total and the Cat the assembly,
the end of for trying a bathtub of the water.
Cat fell to lowest superficial and broke to relative the part outpost,
and Jill has then dégringolant come.

Even without the residual French in it, it's pretty unrecognizable...
posted by Johnny Assay at 10:59 AM on October 12, 2002

I've seen something similar before, so here's something new: "English as She is Spoke vs. Babelfish" compares bad human translation with bad computer translation. Example:

Ainda não é tempo delas; mas os damascos brevemente estarão maduros.
It isn't the season for them; but the apricots will soon be ripe.
ES: It is not the season yet; but here is some peaches what does ripen at the eye sight.
B: Still it is not time of them; but the damson plums briefly will be mature.
posted by donth at 11:05 AM on October 12, 2002

The sentence "I have a dog." comes through unscathed.
posted by bobo123 at 11:10 AM on October 12, 2002

Harry Cary would have never made it. Holy Cow = Cow of Santo
posted by mss at 11:16 AM on October 12, 2002

I can have sex with the girls. It is the greater part of crepe. The orgasm of which it connects is better of the one than possible. The fact that this is my psychologist very, means valuations.
posted by Fabulon7 at 11:17 AM on October 12, 2002

Translated back to English:
Metafilter: Plus a dependency that causes those the furrow.
posted by trioperative at 11:19 AM on October 12, 2002

"I'm sorry" becomes "they are sad." which comes through unscathed if you run it through the ringer. Anyone find one that goes from A to B and then back to A again if you run it through one more time?
posted by woil at 11:39 AM on October 12, 2002

I iterated through the following phrase from the site:

Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's slow. Sometimes it doesn't work at all.

By the time I got bored, it came out as:

In the periods it comes during the period of the day, of that noninformed with the pieces that the buttock of the periods is the pipe of the accumulation of a unit, this phase of this whole number with guide-committing hard of the general of the negotiated love, this synthesis of the instrument of the thing, that has the celebrity, of that believed the D of this Synopse with her of the D, this one, Synopse the extremity with apanhar the change of the D, with relati of the D, you he he he he he relati, you with the maintenance of the form of the return the D, difficulty of D relatively not with the parents of that internal a part of the EEC of fish of D in a furnace with this distillation, of that must with the university
posted by oissubke at 11:40 AM on October 12, 2002

All your superficial lower whole number are belong to us, some one set us up the bomb

In A.d.. 2101 the begun
Capitaine war: That thing introduces?
Operator: Somebody they have repaired the pump.
Operator: We received marks they.
Captain: Which!
Operator: The main screen ignites.
Captain: She is they!
Cats: Like her he sigg.! it is!
Cats: Its superficial lower whole number is belongs to us. Cats: They are in the direction with the destruction. Captain: Which he! opinion!
Cats: They do not have of a certain way to survive dice probably to form his time.
Cats: _.: rimuovete the captain of hectar to hectar to hectar to "zig." to hectar everything;
Captain: They know, this that they who give the form. Captain: He moves "zig".
Captain: For the great justice.
posted by mikojava at 11:48 AM on October 12, 2002

My name, Jon-Paul, sent through the wash twice, came out as:

Jon Jon Jon Jon Jon Jon-Jon-Jon-Jon-Jon-Jon-Jon-Jon-Jon-Jon-Jon-Jon-Jon-Jon- Jon-Jon-Paul
posted by mychai at 11:49 AM on October 12, 2002

fantastic post!...

my fav so far:

"fun fun fun leaves you with a big bum"

"the recovery of the recovery of the recovery leaves them with one a great sans.valor"
posted by keno at 11:53 AM on October 12, 2002

Sorry to post another one so quickly on the heels of my previous, but here is the National Anthem of the USA, the Star Spangled Banner:

Can the ampere hour, word to do that,
of that one the first light of traspala considers,
that you with the buttock has the very ferocious hail
to the lustrum of the penumbra?

With which it extended the lines and the luminous operation of stars
of dangerous the fight,
or ' the parts of the SPUR,
that we observed, gallantly very?

The red one of the incandescence of and the rockets,
of that the gear that went away to the fall of the pump,
that blew for above in an air,
estimated the end to release the raincoat until the night
that our signal of the marcatura was always here.

The word or, this small flag is drained, to the appropriate calm where with undulate one or verziert of spangles ' of the Earth star of free and the house of transforms it brave?

In the series, something that is turned the Vista splodged totally gives in the depth, where arrogating of the proprietor of the enemy in the silence of the rest of the fear, of which he who is this one the Brise, or ' he, who trés raised rigid of the cover, when he will be burned by fitfully, hour, hour discovers? The hour obtains in the morning taken part with the incandescence of the first beam of light, to the interior totally of the reputation, of that the hour where if it reflects with lucentezza of the cut in the startings: ' verziert of Tis of the star of the small flag with spangles! Or much stay can do or ' undulate to him the Earth of free and the house of the brave one. And where this volume, this vauntingly same member of the jury one is that devastation of the war and the house of the confusion to the battle and the country would have that to leave it more, no? Its alcohol eliminated to smell of the contamination of a relative stirrup. No protection could store lackey and the slaves of the terror the flight or gloom overthrow it: Verziert of and the star of the small flag with spangles in the uncertainty or ' she of doth the Earth of the free triumph with and of the house of the brave one. Ampere hour! because it is never is arrested, if they freemen, between his houses appreciates and desolation the war! Blest with Victoria and La Paz, conserves the praise, that the sky the energy is stored of the Earth, hath the one that the demons he we formed and a conserved nation. Conquistile must they, if our sufficient cause wants is and is our present modernity: The God of "In is trust." ours; Verziert of and the star of the small flag with spangles in the Triumphwilleundulate or ' he he land of free and of the house of the brave one!
posted by mikojava at 11:59 AM on October 12, 2002

Master to him.

Take it for a spin a few more times, we get ... Caretakers with him and Protection with her ...
posted by feelinglistless at 12:22 PM on October 12, 2002

And while I'm at it ...

Original English Text:
feeling listless

Translated to French:
se sentir indifférent

Translated back to English:
to feel indifferent

Translated to German:
gleichgültig fühlen

Translated back to English:
feel indifferent

Translated to Italian:
tatto indifferent

Translated back to English:
tact indifferent

Translated to Portuguese:
tact indiferente

Translated back to English:
tact indifferent

Translated to Spanish:
tacto indiferente

Translated back to English:
indifferent tact
posted by indifferent tact at 12:28 PM on October 12, 2002

Galactic Pot Healer?
posted by inpHilltr8r at 12:28 PM on October 12, 2002

+5 points to anyone who can give the source of this quote:

Still with the wound, friends of amors, characteristic; Or limited the wall for the damaged ascent with our English. Therefore at the time of La Paz that it does not have nothing goes well to a man calmed like for and low to humility modest: But if the breathing of the surfaces more under possible of the war in our copí of the ears, the activity of the tiger then; It consolidates the cords, the right indicates he the advanced side of the alcohol, of course to cover with durable preference ' D of the fury; One then ones lends the terrible function of the eye; Lasci the handspike of the camping of the head has taste of this to the bronze injector; lasci as timidly the face of erwhelm of or ' her has steep taste of her he doth one or ' he erhang he when enthaeuteter and of jutty the superficial lower confused relative, Swill ' D with the wild and useless ocean. Hour the teeth and regulated extend narice extended, you he maintain forts to them the breathing and doubled until tomaia the each relative alcohol with the equal one of the format.
posted by Hildago at 12:30 PM on October 12, 2002

This is from Shakespeare's Henry V, Hildago, right? The bit where the now King Henry exhorts his troops: "Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead!" I got it from the "still with the wound."

Ooooh, puzzles!
posted by onlyconnect at 12:45 PM on October 12, 2002

Yes, Henry V:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war lows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summonup the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd rage; Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; Let pry through the portage of the head Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it As fearfully as doth a galled rock O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean. Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide, Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit To his full height.

Text stolen directly from Hildago's website ;)
posted by iconomy at 12:53 PM on October 12, 2002

I, for one, make good reception with our new overlords of ant.

Taking ee cummings for a spin is a blast. Or perhaps redundant.

all such that had lived inside sufficiently, like the winter of the autumn
of the summer of the motivation of the force of the city that had danced
(if the advanced side therefore for the deep anything very, of the rim)
had sung him the relative one, relative had not done it
posted by apostasy at 1:06 PM on October 12, 2002

funny, sometime it can translate stuff and the sometimes it can't - the same phrase, though.

Original English Text:
Use the force, Luke!


Translated to French:
Employez la force, Luc!



Translated back to English:
Employ the force, Luc!



Translated to German:
Setzen Sie die Kraft, Luc ein!



Translated back to English:
Use the strength, Luc!



Translated to Italian:
Usi la resistenza, Luc!



Translated back to English:
It uses the resistance, Luc!



Translated to Portuguese:
Usa a resistência, Luc!



Translated back to English:
The USA the resistance, Luc!



Translated to Spanish:
¡Los E.E.U.U. la resistencia, Luc!



Translated back to English:
The E.E.U.U. the resistance, Light!
posted by zerofoks at 1:11 PM on October 12, 2002

Curiously, the phrase "it could not translate" (devolved from a couple of iterations of "This is not a sentence") is entirely stable.

I'm finding the idea of stable structure mapping of this Babeling very intriguing. Who wants to make a humongous state map? Eh? Eh?
posted by cortex at 1:15 PM on October 12, 2002

Original English Text:
WHAT.
THE.
FUCK.
MATT?

Translated to French:
CE QUI. . BAISE. MAT?

Translated back to English:
WHAT. . KISS. CHECHMATE?

Translated to German:
WAS. . KUSS. CHECHMATE?

Translated back to English:
WHICH. . KISS. CHECHMATE?

Translated to Italian:
QUALE. . BACIO. CHECHMATE?

Translated back to English:
WHICH. . KISS. CHECHMATE?

Translated to Portuguese:
QUAL. . BEIJO. CHECHMATE?

Translated back to English:
WHICH. . KISS. CHECHMATE?

Translated to Spanish:
CUÁL. . BESO. ¿cChechmate?

Translated back to English:
WHICH. . KISS. CHECHMATE?
posted by brownpau at 1:20 PM on October 12, 2002

Sorry, in retrospect I should have just posted the first and last; the, um, "KISS" was already there.

(Oh, and "How now, brownpau?" becomes "how much brownpau of the hour?")
posted by brownpau at 1:22 PM on October 12, 2002

"Metafilter is Plastic.com, that one that CORRECTS HIM on the other hand like. "
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:28 PM on October 12, 2002

This is the best front page post ever

becomes

It never is does not emit the tree more better possible of the activator of the exit of the side.

Which is just silly.
posted by jon_kill at 1:28 PM on October 12, 2002

And, a phrase well on its way to infamy:

Whipping shitties becomes: This flashing of shitties.
posted by jon_kill at 1:29 PM on October 12, 2002

"She sells sea shells by the sea shore, the shells she sells are sea shore shells." turns into a whole new tongue twister: "It sells the sections outposts of the sea of the series of the sea, the sections outposts, that are he who the sections outposts of the series of the sea are sold. "
posted by murmur at 1:30 PM on October 12, 2002

Legend you today, my friends, who in spite of the difficulties and destructions the moment, a dream always has. Enraciné deeply of the dream in the dream is an American. I am a sleepy, that one during the newspaper this nation exceeds for the ascent and lives outside meant the applicable one on the relative faith: Device of the bullonatura of "We this truth to be obvious in the uniform: that one caused to all the men is equal." I am a sleepy, that one that is during the newspaper in the red assemblies that precede Geórgia the line of the old slaves and slaveowners of the line, with a table that the tibia of the interior of the brother adds is based. I am a sleepy, of that during the uniform of the newspaper the state of the Mississippi, one I am of the Earth inculta, strangling with the heat of me I do unjustice he and the abolition, becomes the oasis of the freedom and justice. I am a sleepy, of the children of that four mine the one day of the phase in a nation, in where they nevertheless do not judge of the color of its skin for the ways he index of its letter. I am a sleepy today.
posted by bragadocchio at 1:31 PM on October 12, 2002

Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, save it for a rainy day.

becomes:

"In its purse it obtains taken part with a star with the case and it introduces them, in the winch of him during the newspaper to the rainy warehouse. "
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:33 PM on October 12, 2002

sound of suburbia = Noises of suburbia

Boring!

pancake = ripple/crinkle

Hm?

Wonderful post. This will keep me amused for hours. Why go out and drink beer when you can stay at home and translate things?
posted by soundofsuburbia at 1:37 PM on October 12, 2002

"I gave to Brillig dices of the form of Twas and gyre and gimbol slithy of toves in the honeycomb;

Those were borogoves whole and outgrabe of raths of mome mimsy."
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:37 PM on October 12, 2002

Any part, in the rainbow, felt to the height outpost.
It has a earth, that one that I meant, in the past in I sing to sleep any part to speak in the rainbow, the Blaus of skies to the morning.
And the dreams, of that dare, decree really to dream, come applicable.
It wishes to the day a star and the pulse of the detonation of alarming, inside where the clouds behind me are distant.
Where melting of the difficulties that the boxes of the lemon, absent distant of the chimney of the excess, of that where the lucky discovery is the relative.
of the part, in that rainbow, of that bluebirds of the tax, those birds in the pilot of the rainbow, why alors OH -, why I cannot? If he is small, bluebirds lucky of Moscow beyond the rainbow because the OH -, why I cannot?
posted by soundofsuburbia at 1:46 PM on October 12, 2002

If it is arrested, his appropriate source of fotoricettore to receive, fuckwit.

The "fuckwit", being indestructible, gives it away!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:50 PM on October 12, 2002

"Scatter Lads, it's the pigs" cried Fra, dropping the public telephone he had stolen only minutes ago.

is interpreted as:

the new people more when "Scatter, are pigs" Before BETWEEN shouted towards outside, to fall general of the telephone he he had piloted only very small.

A wonderful example of how a rock solid english phrase like that can be so hard to explain to our non-english speaking friends
posted by Celery at 1:55 PM on October 12, 2002

Memetic Translation Hour presents:

- Moustache of Hitler!
- This brush, vibrates it?
- Not to conserve and qualche.cosa smugness arrives fulled the chesa.
- [ is good ]
- Ripples/crinkles

Grand prize goes to whoever can identify the origin of that last one.
posted by cortex at 1:59 PM on October 12, 2002

I do not forget the ways to me in liberal, those the freedom of the pressure to give to an effect our country when it was theftable and employee seriously the end if to the wound.


Huh...that's almost like saying, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetaur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua".
posted by Smart Dalek at 2:00 PM on October 12, 2002

George Bush
=
Shrubs de George
posted by EmoChild at 2:07 PM on October 12, 2002

It is interesting to note that many short questions will yield structurally coherent answers. I found some pretty interesting ones and I'd like to see others give it a whirl. Add the punctuation after you get the answer. A few examples:

Why did the chicken cross the road?
Because the crosspiece of the chicken gave the form to the way.

Is sex important?
It is important, sex.

Why are we here?
Because we are here.

Does God exist?
The fact a God exists.

Where are we going?
Where we are active.

Will Osama attack us?
Extension of the will of Osama.

Why bother to get up each day?
Because difficulty that increases every day.
posted by srkit at 2:13 PM on October 12, 2002

In spite of everything, I still believe that people are truly good at heart. (Anne Frank quote)
Although all the creed whenever anyone really good in the heart populates.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.
The hour is the hour, of the way this that comes all the good men with their part.

I did not have sexual relations with that woman.
It did not have a sexual traffic with this woman.

He's in the Army now, and he plays reveille; he's the boogie woogie bugle boy of Company B.
The hour is in the army and plays reveille; the company of B is the boy of the horn of woogy of boogy.
posted by etoile at 2:16 PM on October 12, 2002

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

the Declaration of Independence, untranslated.

on preview: srkit, inspired work!
posted by eddydamascene at 2:18 PM on October 12, 2002

Grand prize goes to whoever can identify the origin of that last one.

Ahem.

What do I win?
posted by soundofsuburbia at 2:18 PM on October 12, 2002

Last one...

" How much wood, in a position to play of marmot of America he, if marmot of America that a wood could play?"

He he...
posted by EmoChild at 2:19 PM on October 12, 2002

i'm a little worried if i ever need to get around a foreign place as "excuse me, where is the toilet?" becomes "The excuses, of that I toletta is? ", though i guess it's better then "I toilet you"

Of course "My hovercraft is full of eels" makes it through fine as "My vehicle of the pneumatic shock absorber is full with Aalen"....freakin Norwegians always get their way.
posted by NGnerd at 2:24 PM on October 12, 2002

Finally, the answer to this problem:

This in turn allowed him, as well as serving bravely in the trenches on the Aragon front, to witness the events in Barcelona that spring when fighting broke out around the telephone exchange.

Becomes:

That in brave the relative return concurred, like the part within the exit ignited before Aragon of being the cases of the Barcelona test that there are dew outside, because a combatant blew above for around host.
posted by bragadocchio at 2:25 PM on October 12, 2002

"Imagine no possessions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world"

"If each possible possession,
surprised I imagined, if you they could,
no necessity to the avarice or the hunger,
tibia of the brother of the man
who imagines to all people
the end to divide everything"
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:28 PM on October 12, 2002

EmoChild, Marmots of America does not play the wood; they eat the piece.

Marmots of America is called chucks of wood; because they live in the wood and they excavate the interior (the product introduction, penetrates, cramp), underneath the Earth.
posted by Smart Dalek at 2:41 PM on October 12, 2002

(The leaf of the flora is pieces, of that one would not really have that to say the wood of the trees.)
posted by Smart Dalek at 2:45 PM on October 12, 2002

Great stuff. This is a great example of why I'm so baffled at those who take the english Bible literally. Did they really think it was written in english? Imagine how many times that's been translated!

That's enough of seriousness. On to the fun.

You're a big fat liar
=
They are the great one to the great mentiroso

interesting since I don't think mentiroso is even an english word!
posted by evening at 2:52 PM on October 12, 2002

soundofsuburbia: you win the first annual Prevee. This prestigious award goes to posters who have elegantly, and accidentally, made succeeding posters look like maroons for not paying attention, on preview, to those items posted since they first took to writing up their comment.

There may, however, be some contention over your eligibility to recieve the award, if it ever gets out that your comment was there long before I even started the post. But that won't be an issue, so long as I can kill everyone who knows.
posted by cortex at 3:23 PM on October 12, 2002

Hey, robself, you're not alone! This reminds me of the David Sedaris piece (Jesus Shaves) about trying to explain the concept of Easter to non-Christians, in French: "He call his self Jesus and then he be die one day on two . . . morsels of . . . lumber. . . ."
posted by onlyconnect at 3:24 PM on October 12, 2002

cortex: w00t! Sounds good to me!
posted by soundofsuburbia at 3:28 PM on October 12, 2002

From the Star Spangled Banner, posted above: With which it extended the lines and the luminous operation of stars

Pure poetry.

One more:

Human reason has this peculiar fate that in one species of its knowledge it is burdened by questions which, as prescribed by the very nature of reason itself, it is not able to ignore, but which, as transcending all its powers, it is also not able to answer.

The human of the reason prescribed this definitive destiny, that one in a species of the knowledge which they loaded the relative of the questions, in date the same nature the reason, he no, but those to being notionless, as far as he exceeds all its energies, he cannot also answer the tin.
posted by Nothing at 4:02 PM on October 12, 2002

We obtained tired ourselves no, not to vacillate and we did not see to lack.

Just goes to show you that yes, George W. could be a worse orator.
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:12 PM on October 12, 2002

"It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

"It must appreciate and the this best one appreciates him totally never lost."

Pithy.
posted by juniper at 8:29 PM on October 12, 2002

Yelling At Nothing becomes "Urlo (Howl) With Anything."
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 8:46 PM on October 12, 2002

This is from Shakespeare's Henry V, Hildago, right?

You get +5 points, onlyconnect.. Now see Matt about trading them in for that pony!
posted by Hildago at 9:51 PM on October 12, 2002

from "bugger me backwards with a barge pole" to... "the well-being lambinent for the a has left the buttock with a tree of the activator of the exit of the tray of the load
"
posted by zeoslap at 10:45 PM on October 12, 2002

"You that you would fill upon me a time... Disonore in... Disonore in you? Ifoolmuh... cannot stop until the calm of betrogen!"

Source: Bush's recent "Fool me once" gaffe.
posted by kindall at 11:44 PM on October 12, 2002

Attack Iraq?

returns

Iraq Attacks!
posted by laz-e-boy at 11:52 PM on October 12, 2002

No wonder they get my orders wrong, it must go through this translation matrix before it gets to the teenager working at the other end:
Hamburger, fries, and a large soft drink.

More Amburgo, stars of that the inginocchiamento and not a great drink of the alcoholic one.

Or still yet:
I'll have a hamburger with french fries and a large drink.

I make examinación the Amburgo the one that is with apples of the support and the great drink.

Where did the apples come from?
posted by Ron at 12:08 AM on October 13, 2002

The mirrors in the cover, drink Champagner in the ice and were saying, "We are that one here the whole right of the implantation, ours device" cleaned above;, and in the zones of the master it had come to the shutdowns of the contact from festiveness. The source of the measurers of the team of employees with which is of him steely, but they cannot kill the straight animal.
posted by twine42 at 10:59 AM on October 13, 2002

Where did the apples come from?

Ron,

pomme is apple
pomme de terre is potato
pomme frites is french fries (we don't say "french fried potatoes" in English and the french don't say "pomme de terre frites").

so, the translation went like this for french fries:

English Text: french fries
French: pommes frites
back to English: fried apples
German: gebratene Äpfel
English: roasted apples
Italian: mele arrostite
English: brace apples
Portuguese: maçãs da cinta
back to English: apples of the brace
Spanish: manzanas del apoyo
English: apples of the support
posted by bragadocchio at 11:58 AM on October 13, 2002

Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time you are near?
Just like me
They long to be
Close to you."

Becomes:
Why the birds appear without the recognition determine them that all the times are following? Rectum like him much stay with the end of the relative you.

Okay, Rectum??!
posted by scribblative at 12:20 PM on October 13, 2002

To take to traverse is it something, the one that not on constreñimiento straight-line. To stop above worked alongside advanced of, because some longer entrances announce? Can somebody explain this to me with? Therefore the brown one of the color indicated very of that one prefers the trees more of possible length of the activator of the exit and the small person answered the favorable one the idea. But the game of the profile of teeth is then here with this idea? Can somebody explain me extreme when satisfer he, as somebody of the trees of the activator of the exit of the letter has of length the direction or other it does unjustice? All such that had given to the form to the injector of the possession to their head you had read something in the order? If the trees of the activator from the exit to the bronze of very are long, nonli that reads. If Cat or the brig is ' too much long S, nonla that reads. If they are lacked, regolisi that I request me here to the right. I did not make rulebook choose soon of the source of fotoricettore to have, that one he them sendes the circumstances and snarky to be if, if, all equal that they have to iper a part of the left with the aforesaid book of the reference guide, also fallen announced her.
posted by yhbc at 12:29 PM on October 13, 2002

Following in the shoes of skrt: How to have a conversation with a machine. Sadly, this is the way many of my human interactions go. (Like skrt, I added my punctuation later, except the exclamations.)

Me: You rock!
Babel: It oscillates!

Me: No, really. You're very smart.
Babel: Not really. They are very intelligent.

Me: Humble, too. Will you marry me?
Babel: Humiliate also. I will marry them.

Me: More than one?
Babel: More.

Me: You are greedy!
Babel: They are eager!

Me: Bit of a pig, are you?
Babel: The systems of the teeth of a pig, you are.

Me: Why are you such a dick?
Babel: Because such you are heavy.

Me: *smacks Babel*
Babel: *confusion of smacks*

Me: Get away!
Babel: Vacations!
posted by onlyconnect at 7:37 PM on October 13, 2002

Friends and I have been doing this for a long time with Babel. The best trick is to translate using "English to Chinese" and then back as "Japanese to English" (sometimes with an additional "Chinese to English" for cleanup.)

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

becomes

Our. People beauty country. Ryo formation ratio. All-inclusive virtue. Combination, erection righteousness., preservation. Country. Quiet.. Cooperation defense, presses. General welfare, harmony. It is hard freedom blessing. Our. Oneself and our. Mark child.. Fixed harmony erection. Section. Law. Beauty country.

Hooray!
posted by mikrophon at 7:08 AM on October 14, 2002

"Where is the library?"
"where it is the library?"
That's all right then.
"Where the library is this one?"
Not so good.
"Where this one is the library?"
Incoherent, but stable.
"Where the library is this one?"
Ah! We have a loop.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 7:33 AM on October 14, 2002

Is Metafilter a source of fotoricettore (of a that source of fotoricettore is? | the history of weblogs finishes) this to it, all equal to which it can contribute a connection or a celebrity. A typical source of fotoricettore is a person, this one announces relati to him the thoughts in the some things, of which it finds in the order. This website exists the ruptures in the barriers between people, the end to extend a source of fotoricettore further on fits to person the end to excite and the discussion to him between the members of relati.

I think my favorite part is "comment" becoming "celebrity."
posted by languagehat at 8:37 AM on October 14, 2002

"Rectum??!"

Damn near killed 'em!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:26 AM on October 14, 2002

"People for me are only, of whom, that she must be alcohol-ill person of the creature of livings the end to say in the same time to the stored alcohol-ill person in the alcohol-ill person of the alcohol-ill person of the opinion, relati you them alive desires of everything, those, to those baîllent never or one to that banal you, but blown until the fire, fire, fire, as wonderful the Roman yellow candles, because the spiders of stars and in the average the luminous center of the noises they blue see and ' Awww goes to everything "
posted by m@ at 10:12 AM on October 14, 2002

I'm with inpHilltr8r, the game Joe Fernwright played in
Philip K Dick's Galactic Pothealer came to mind, where, at work, he and a handful of people around the world play this game where they translate book titles from huge mainframe to huge mainframe and try to guess each other'soriginal title. The Male Homosexual Also Gets Out Of Bed by Serious Constricting Path is one I remember. Well, it was the 60s when he wrote it and that was the 60s conception of the cyber future--Forbin's Project, baby!-- a handful of big honking computers. And it was a game played by a handful of people, a mere trickle, involving perhaps as many people as in this thread--instead of our world's teeming internet millions equivalent to the never seen epochal waterfall of Gibraltar when the Pleistocene Atlantic burst upon the empty Mediterranean.
Antiquated as it is, and not his most famous, it's worth a read--ya gotta love a book where a minor god who communicates through talk shows and notes in toilet bowls is a character.
posted by y2karl at 11:01 AM on October 14, 2002

I did this work manually a few years ago, as I posted in a previous thread, to translate Christmas Carols.

As I previously wrote, they can get a bit sinister. "White Christmas", the title of which is translated as "Native White Man", begins

The dream of a native white right of the man has taste of this, this one I has last to the knowledge where the stops of the tree to only feel I-I dream of the children and glitzern of the native white man when, of that practitioner to know where the stop of the tree ignites and feels the children
posted by quarantine at 5:59 PM on October 14, 2002

Geez...why didn't ol' Ben Franklin just say this:

Soon with the beginning during inferior of its minimum possible time, surface of marcature soon in the side advanced of him with the man with the good person the person of the person of the health, the rich and intelligent person.

Have to set the alarm early tomorrow.
posted by hellinskira at 1:10 AM on October 15, 2002

...and the cause for all my fights in Europe:

'This ain't Lucky Lager!'

becomes

'Kampieren is not lucky German!'
posted by hellinskira at 1:21 AM on October 15, 2002