Free poetry
In a blog entry, my wife refers to an article in the Seattle Times, in which Reggie Hudlin says the following:
How would they have this great super-science? You do a little research and you find that some African tribes had these metal alloys while people in Britain were still living in caves. What if their libraries never got burned, they never got knocked off track in terms of their cultural advancement? They could only maintain that by being one of the most fierce warrior tribes on earth. Look at the Vietnamese. They beat the Chinese, the French, the Americans. You can't really explain why, other than that they're just a bunch of kick-ass people.
I think Reggie gets his point across. But if we take Reggie's work, translate it into Korean, then back into English, all on Babelfish, we get something a little better.
To them to be how there is this company free highest science theyn the place? It researches in small quantity it spreads out and pu li inside sprouting, the person yet while being Iss, the high price which has to the some Africa insufficient this metal alloy discovers inside the oyster. Their library ignited assuredly and it did not get what, it knocked it fell and and and it tracks it didn't get assuredly from their culture advance point and and? Them from were the warrior insufficient one flesh which is most fierce in endurance and only it will be able to maintain that. It sees in the Vietnam person. Them the chow, were France, it hit the American person. With the realness which spreads out, them will be legitimate other than that to kick hard and the bunch of the donkey person it will peel and it will explain why.
Wow. Is this what Korean is like inside the head of a bi-lingual person? Even if we step back and acknowledge that Babelfish is far from perfect, the poetry created here could allow me to become a modern day James Joyce (oops ... just leaked book idea) with nothing more than a crude diary of my day.
Today I got up and took a shower. I ate some cereal and read a magazine article about invasive species. Then I wandered around my front yard thinking about the gardening projects I would like to undertake this weekend. Then I realized I was running late for work, so I put my coat on and drove to work, listening to the radio the whole time.
This is what the magic of Babelfish produced:
Today sya we in me, by it happened and it was caught. I ate a some grain and regarding an aggression kind the magazine article i read. When it wanted starting, it will float it will make a that time going out this weekend and regarding a project me to think to the surroundings of my front yard it wandered. It went out and day hazard it was running lately, it was like that and and it went out and my, overcoat above that time I came true the fact that it puts and at the day when it listens to the radio time of war for i drove.
Oh no! Time of war? Aggression? What's happening? Existential issues aside, What is it about driving to work that is like like being in a time of war? Does this sort of bizarre translation have anything to do with the root causes of what happened on the Korean Peninsual in the 1950s?
Take the same paragraph and go from English to Japanese and back again:
Present I caused the shower, took. I ate the grain, read the article of the magazine concerning invade kind. Then concerning the gardening project which desires the fact that I undertake this weekend I whom you think wandered about around the garden in my chart. And as for me therefore I was running my coat slowly, it actualized, making total time things the work which inquires about the radio I drove for working.
Whew. Nothing violent. Just a bizarre experience that evokes the same response I have when watching Japanese movies. Especially the part about where I'm running my coat slowly while it actuallizes itself.
posted by Peter | 8:45 AM
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