# debabelize the common expression!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 19, 2001, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860 "2001-05-19T00:27:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2001, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/1 "2001-05-19T00:27:00Z")
I was discussing with a friend of mine the clever works of the great Douglas Adams, and he reminded me of a game we had played once via e-mail using [Altavista’s Babelfish translator](http://world.altavista.com/tr). You take a common expression/catchphrase/proverb, translate it from language A to B and back to A. English expressions would probably be best since the vast majority of the posters here know english well. The gameplayers have to try to guess the original phrase.
I’ll start with an easy one.
English - French - English
You had a better spirit your picosecond and Qs.
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2001, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/2 "2001-05-19T01:04:01Z")
I love this game! But “you better mind your P’s and Q’s”, I had a similar thread going not too long ago. In it we discovered (actually I think someone informed us) that the key language is Japanese. I’ll hunt for the link (at the rish of being flamed ala the whole “Number one song when you were born” thread).
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2001, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/3 "2001-05-19T01:08:54Z")
Found it. And now I expect to be dragged into the Pit at any time for saying [Been There Done That](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=69517).
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2001, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/4 "2001-05-19T01:14:45Z")
Whoops! Didn’t notice the previous one. I would say “thank you for the link”, but instead I’ll say
English - Portuguese - English
It has beaten the road, Jack, and you they do not come back more.
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2001, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/5 "2001-05-19T01:19:44Z")
To show you I’m not a total turd, let me off this …
English - Korean - English (I couldn’t get Japanese to work)
_ **"Now all for the good male the hour comes to assistance of they countries."** _
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2001, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/6 "2001-05-19T01:31:52Z")
This whole point by me it ran in interpretation. It will calculate and will be to go out from what it arranges ability until now and and troublesome army song it is sufficient and I suspect the thing.
For a long time holds in everybody’s mind of the jack Batty which is to live the attention }slut{. which
* * *
Attention: The possibility where the user flies by the Cape widely known it is not.
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2001, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/7 "2001-05-19T16:14:35Z")
Jack, step away from the Babelfish.
And BTW, yours was “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.”
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### Author:  [@Soup\_du\_jour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup_du_jour)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2001, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/8 "2001-05-19T19:51:44Z")
Imagination is greater than knowledge.
English-Italian-English
The imagination is larger of the acquaintance.
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### Author:  [@Mercutio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mercutio)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2001, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/9 "2001-05-19T19:57:08Z")
English - German - English
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.
**Why did the chicken cross the road? At the other page arrive.**
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### Author:  [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2001, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/10 "2001-05-20T07:56:26Z")
In honor of **Mercutio** , a famous speech in Romeo and Juliet, translated from English to Spanish to English:
Original:
“O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep; Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders’ legs, The cover of the wings of grasshoppers, The traces of the smallest spider’s web, The collars of the moonshine’s watery beams, Her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of film, Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat, Not so big as a round little worm Prick’d from the lazy finger of a maid; Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers. And in this state she gallops night by night Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love; O’er courtiers’ knees, that dream on court’sies straight, O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees, O’er ladies ’ lips, who straight on kisses dream, Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are: Sometime she gallops o’er a courtier’s nose, And then dreams he of smelling out a suit; And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig’s tail Tickling a parson’s nose as a’ lies asleep, Then dreams, he of another benefice: Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two And sleeps again. This is that very Mab That plats the manes of horses in the night, And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes: This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage: This is she–”
New translation:
“Or, then, I see hath of the Mab of the queen been with you. It is the partera of the fairies, and it comes in the dimension of a variable not greater than a agate-stone in the index of a councilman, layout with an equipment of the noses of small of the atomies the men of Athwart whereas they lie slept; Their car-rays done of the legs of the long spiders, the cover of the grasshopper wings, the signs of the smaller Web of spider, the necklaces of the watery beams of moonshine, his whip of the bone of the cricket, latigazo of the film, his wagoner a small gray-had mosquito, not as great as small round worm Prick’d of the sluggish finger of a servant; Su chariot is an empty hazelnut done by the squirrel or the old food, time of the carpenter was mind of or ’ coachmakers of the fairies. And in this state she night of gallops per night through the brains of the lovers, and then they dreams about lover; Knees of courtiers of Óer, that right dream in court’sies, fingers of the lawyers of Óer, that straight dream in the honoraria, lips of the ladies of Óer ', that straight kisses ideal, that oft the Mab angered with the blisters plagues, because they are his breathings with corrupted caramels: Sometimes she to óer of gallops one more a nose to courtier, and then dreams he to smell out of play; And it with a tail comes sometimes from the tithe-pig that cosquillea a nose as ’ she lies slept, then dreams of parson, he of another one benefice: Sometimes she to óer of driveth neck of a soldier, and then dreams he of the nonnative throats of the cut, openings, ambuscadoes, Spanish laminae, of the five-fathom of healths deeply; and then the drums anóces in their ear, in which he begins and the wakes, and to be thus frighted swear a prayer or two and sleep again. This one is that same Mab that plats the melenas of horses at night, and cook to the furnace elflocks in the revolting hairs of sluttish, which they disentangled once, much misfortune foretell: This one is hag, when the servants lie in their posterioras parts, that press them and it learns them first to take, doing to them women of the good car: This one is she --”
–Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene IV
Interesting.
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### Author:  [@woolly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woolly)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2001, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/11 "2001-05-20T12:23:26Z")
English-German-French-English
You ask their himself, believe in happy punk?
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2001, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/12 "2001-05-20T15:15:02Z")
woolly, I believe you are quoting the fearsome “Dirty Harry”.
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### Author:  [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2001, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/13 "2001-05-20T15:25:17Z")
I’ll take Arnold’s turn: **We all are long-term died**. (English-German-French-English)
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### Author:  [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2001, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/14 "2001-05-20T15:49:43Z")
Should be an easy one…
**Mainly Inoffensive** (English-Spanish-English)
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### Author:  [@Kaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaz)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2001, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/15 "2001-05-20T16:07:17Z")
English-German-French-English:
**Your whole lower part being to belong us.**
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### Author:  [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2001, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/16 "2001-05-20T16:18:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> brillig in an educated manner by Twas and those toves, which have it slithy are, the gyre and gimble in honeycomb; That whole mimsy were they those borogoves and the outgrabe of raths mome.
>
> " it by the Jabberwock, my son are monitored! The Kiefer, which bite it, the grip arms, which behinderen! It is monitored by the bird of Jubjub and avoids frumious the Bandersnatch!",
>
> It took its blade, which is for organization vorpal: Much time the enemy, whom of manxome it tried – thus it of the tree of Tumtum and of levato in the feet for a PO ’ in the thought stood still.
>
> And, how into uffish has it meant that levasse into feet, which Jabberwock, with which eyes of the flame, came, whiffling by the wood of tulgey and during it came burbled,!
>
> Two! Two! And through and vorpal lamierina it led snicker blunt it! It left out of operation and with the relative heading has it the gone Galumphing behind
>
> " and thou of has slain the Jabberwock? Come to my levers, my boy beamish! Day frabjous of or! Callooh! Callay!", Chortled in its joy ’
>
> brillig of Twas and of toves, which slithy are, formed the gyre and gimble in honeycomb; That whole mimsy were they borogoves and the outgrabe of raths mome.
> **[Dictionary.com Is The World’s Favorite Online Dictionary](https://www.dictionary.com)**
>
> Dictionary.com is the world’s leading online source for English definitions, pronunciations, word origins, idioms, Word of the Day, and more.
English to Italian, then back,
then into German and back.
I tried adding French to the mix, but it started to get confusing…
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### Author:  [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2001, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/17 "2001-05-20T19:04:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Kaz \*
> English-German-French-English:
> **Your whole lower part being to belong us.**
**All your base are belong to us.**
I think.
Now try this one:
English to Spanish to English to German to French to English to Japanese and back to English. Really not that hard.
**Each one is stage and all player simple people ones**
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### Author:  [@Edwardina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edwardina)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2001, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/18 "2001-05-20T19:04:53Z")
English-German-English
**It delightful thing**.
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### Author:  [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2001, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/19 "2001-05-20T19:09:45Z")
Edwardina, is yours perhaps Blimpie’s slogan “It’s a wonderful thing”?
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### Author:  [@Edwardina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edwardina)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2001, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860/20 "2001-05-20T19:16:09Z")
Okay, maybe that last one was beyond hope. Try this one:
English-Japanese-English -
**Before the 'Twas Christmas and the mouse which is made equal does not have creative ones which is not the night when it passes through the house completely was stirred**
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debabelize-the-common-expression/65860.md?page=2)