meditation 1: lost in translation
The Altavista language translation engine (optimistically dubbed Babelfish, after the creature in Douglas Adam's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) is widely used as a quick-and-dirty text and hypertext translation service by millions of people worldwide. It is also widely reviled for its amazing lack of basic vocabulary in commonly-used languages and its complete lack of credibility when performing translations. One way to explore this phenomenon is by discovering translations that fail to properly invert (e.g. the translation from language A to language B and back again does not result in anything remotely resembling the original text).
Furthermore, I used the native text to speech generator from Mac OS to speak the mangled translations, adding insult to injury. The .mp3 files can be found below the typed translations.
A quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet:
Translated from English to French, then back to English, and then back to French and then back again to English using Babelfish online translator, as read by Fred.
English:
To thyne own self be true, and it must follow, as night the day, thou cannot be false to any man.
English to French:
Au thyne possédez l'art de l'auto-portrait soit vrai, et il doit suivre, comme nuit le jour, thou ne peut pas être faux à n'importe quel homme.
French to English:
With the thyne have the art of the self-portrait is true, and it must follow, like harms during the day, thou cannot be false with any man.
English to French:
Avec le thyne ayez l'art du art de l'auto-portrait est vrai, et il doit suivre, comme nuit pendant le jour, thou ne peut pas être faux avec n'importe quel homme.
French to English:
With the thyne have the art of the art of the car-portrait is true, and it must follow, like harms during the day, thou cannot be false with any man.
A quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet
Translated from English to German, then back to English, and then back to German and then back again to English using Babelfish online translator, as read by Fred.
English:
To thyne own self be true, and it must follow, as night the day, thou cannot be false to any man.
English to German:
Zum thyne besitzen Sie Selbst ist zutreffend, und es muß, als Nacht folgen der Tag, Thou kann nicht zu jedem möglichem Mann falsch sein.
German to English:
To thyne possess you are applicable, and it must, as a night follows the day, Thou can not to each possible man be wrong.
English to German:
Zum thyne besitzen Sie Sie sind anwendbar, und es muß, wie eine Nacht dem Tag folgt, Thou kann nicht zu jedem möglichen Mann falsch sein.
German to English:
To thyne possess you you are applicable, and it must, like one night the day follows, Thou cannot not to each possible man be wrong.