[Image by Carl Tashian] What happens when an English phrase is translated (by computer) back and forth between 5 different languages? The authors of the Systran translation software probably never intended this application of their program. As of September 2003, translation software is almost good enough to turn grammatically correct, slang-free text from one language into grammatically incorrect, barely readable approximations in another. But the software is not equipped for 10 consecutive translations of the same piece of text. The resulting half-English, half-foreign, and totally non sequitur response bears almost no resemblance to the original. Remember the old game of “Telephone”? Something is lost, and sometimes something is gained. Try it for yourself!

Classic Examples:
I’m a little tea pot, short and stout.
translates to
They are a small POTENTIOMETER, short circuits and a beer of malzes of the tea.
a cookie is just a cookie, but fig newtons are fruit and cake.
translates to
biskuit has expert of biskuit, but Newton von Fig is fruit and hardens.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.
translates to
If the moon fixes its eye like a great vector of Fleischpie of the vector of Pizzapie, is the lover.

From Lost in Translation by Carl Tashian.