The other day I started playing with
translationparty.com, which a friend posted about here recently. Translation Party translates things back and forth from English into Japanese until they reach steady state. For example, "
All for one and one for all." gets translated into "One is an all in all," then "One is all," then "All is one." At that point, successive translations won't change it, so "All is one" is the equilibrium.
Here are some first lines of famous poems, run through Translation Party. Can you guess the original? (Answers in the comments section.)
- I'll admit the failure of the marriage of true minds.
- White Chicken REDDOHOIRUBARO are dependent on rain water beside the glass
- Thursday, 1 yellow, this branch, the console
- Mr. Mori has been I think I know. His house in the village;
- Me and my past and I have a night out of curiosity, he had struggled to forget the weakness of the fraction of shares of the traditional fatigue.
Or, the easier and more enjoyable intermediary stage:
Midnight, I was bored and tired, traditional, quirky, and I had forgotten in the throes of a fractional share price weakness in the past.
- MANDOREKURUTO, kids, all the legs of the devil, I catch groove shooting stars for several years
- This is a very peaceful, fun time, it is necessary to recognize the end of old age
Note: this one completely reversed the meaning, so it's fun to trace.
- I have to die to stop the stage, he is me, I could not stop the universal
That last one -- Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death he kindly stopped for me; the carriage held but just ourselves and Immortality." -- has particularly wonderful intermediary steps. When I ran it last week, many layers of angst emerged:
- I could not stop for death, he is like me, and I think the only reason is to stop the universal carriage.
- I have stopped my car and only the universal, he is dead I think why could not stop it.
(Does that not sound like a line from The Sound and the Fury?)
- I'm in my own car, I stop myself, I generally have to die or be unable to stop him?
Today the suggestions are different; Google Translate seems to adapt all the time. Now we have:
- I was dead, he is like me, the only reason I could not stop a stagecoach stop is Universal
- I could not stop me because the only stagecoach stop is dead, he is like I'm universal
- I only have to die to stop the stage, he could not stop me as I am a universal
That's deep, man.
Feel free to post other fun poem translations in the comments for others (read: me!) to guess!