Robot Translators in action
You write a poem, say, in Spanish:
La Perdición
un million de virgenes
cantando mis ezfuerzas
como orquídeas fragiles sin futuro
cada nota un barco
un barco de lluvias
lluvias sin bocas, sin cu, sin olor
ai, Dios, gritan los caídos
con lagrimas que no se entienden parar
es una tristeza negra
un negro cenote sin fundo
alli descansa el caballo muerto
donde los hechos no cuentan por nada
ni el sangre torrente
en el
altar de desgraciaThen run it run it back and forth through an internet translator maybe four or five times: eng-span-eng-span
Then attach a photo of some alien event for good measure
and you end up with:
Perdition
one million virgin
singing my ezfuerzas
no future as a fragile orchid
each note a boat
a boat of rain
rain without mouths, without cu, odorless
ai, God, the fallen cry
with tears I do not understand stop
black is a sadness
no fundo of a black cenote
lies the dead horse
where the facts do not count for anything
or the blood stream
Unfortunately at the altar
Hooray! Now everyone can be a poet...
posted by chuck at 3/10/2011 08:30:00 PM
3 Comments:
But how many can be good poets?
Wonder why all dem grunts keep their helmets on? Shrapnel?
Where do you think that plane-load is going?
Iraq?
Libya?
Wisconsin?
Answers:
1. You know the old story about a million monkeys typing on a million typewriters...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem
2. Because someone told them to. Also because it's s short trip. Might as well keep your hat on.
3. I have re-posted the image, now with original text.
4. And an extra FYI: http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigations/iraqafghanistan/1290/fueling_the_afghan_war/?page=2
Have read the poem over in the lite of morn. I like it. The title is, of course, entirely presumptuous, like titling something Heaven or Hell, and it would be better with a straight human translation, machines will never replace us emotionally, but there are some moving lines, including: With tears I do not understand stop, which, on occasion, sums up my daughter Elizabeth, six and a half, to a tee, though more and more tears might be as leers.
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