The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #110424   Message #2486024
Posted By: Jack Blandiver
05-Nov-08 - 05:49 PM
Thread Name: England's National Musical-Instrument?
Subject: RE: England's National Musical-Instrument?
Fun with on-line translators, eh? Well, here's English to Dutch, Dutch to French, French to Italian, and Italian back to English, just about...

L' water of mineral, Gebladerte-geklede sink, groen-Gras on the slopes, goes them of the limestone, Klei-betegelde to them arcades, l' afbaarden of duidelijk-glas, of the columns vormen-Ijzer, Stained-glass of the maximal ones, puts to the earth the tuin-urnen of garden, in wood inlegsels, the ground in a crossing, the roads of the stone, and, has had between the corridors, to fight l' element, d' abundance of the.

Removing the non-English words we get:

water of mineral,
on the slopes,
goes them of the limestone,
to them arcades of the columns
Stained-glass of the maximal ones,
puts to the earth the of garden,
in wood the ground in a crossing,
the roads of the stone, and has had
between the corridors, to fight of the


Which reads like a wonky translation of an Oxyrhynchus Papyrus fragment, but embodies random imagery a good deal more potent than the orginal. I particularly like Stained-glass of the maximal ones. Boroughs would have loved on-line translation engines...

Forgive me, but the obligatory Bonfire Night merlot is rather moreish..