# Good Poetry from the Bad Translator **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 1, 2010, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566 "2010-04-01T12:46:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![tsukaesugi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ad7895/32.png) [@tsukaesugi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsukaesugi)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566/61 "2010-04-03T05:16:25Z")
“He’s a devil, slithy Zhimbl soft and light frost as: Misébiles borogoves and rats outgrabe now.” ---
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566/62 "2010-04-03T05:27:29Z")
Why don’t we do it in the road? Why don’t we do it in the road? No one will be watching us. Why don’t we do it in the road? 10 Translations: “On the street, why not? Why is this? But let us look at what we do, why not take to the streets?” 25 Translations: “On the way, why not? Why? But what looks on the street?” Max translations: “Yes, why? But for or not?” ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566/63 "2010-04-03T07:33:52Z")
Original text: “The strangest of birds is the pelican; his bill can hold more than his belly can. He can hold in his beak enough fish for a week. I wish that I knew how the hell he can.” …54 translations later we get: “Sweet week slightly stronger evidence prostitute.” Surrealism! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566/64 "2010-04-03T07:50:17Z")
Or if you start with surrealism… This was as much of _I am the Walrus_ as the box would accept: “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together See how they run like pigs from a gun see how they fly I’m crying Sitting on a cornflake Waiting for the van to come Corporation T-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday” …10 translations later we get: “I love you, I know that together we will see it as a weapon to run the pigs, I would have tears, sitting in front of corn flakes, on Tuesday, the company will continue in the blood of dumb shirts” (Quite poetic, eh?) After 54… “Wheat was the first blood in my eyes, no g - shirt Tuesday the company.” ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566/65 "2010-04-03T14:24:20Z")
Trying to slove the great conspiracy theory mysteries of our time: “Who shot J.F.K?” after 10 translations: “Kennedy was assassinated?” Okay, you’re no help. ---
**Author:** ![kjckjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566/66 "2010-04-03T17:16:14Z")
“American family and the best combination of Surveillance, as well as prosperity buhoyzaotsheng xyanfa Vietnam in the future and security of the United States to increase public safety.” Yep, pretty much sums up the Preamble of the Constitution pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![kjckjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566/67 "2010-04-03T17:23:53Z")
Hee hee! Beginning of Obama’s inaugral speech after 25: “My fellow citizens,I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation.” BECOMES: “Mr. President, today I find information about lawful activities of the victims, you know, my parents. I appreciate Bush’s military service.” ---
**Author:** ![kjckjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566/68 "2010-04-03T17:35:02Z")
Original text: “Democrats stand ready to address the challenges facing Social Security’s solvency, … but this cannot begin until Republicans begin talking about ways to make Social Security stronger, not weaker.” …54 translations later we get: “Social Democrats, helping the poor … Talk about ways of working, but treatment to improve safety in the Republican party.” ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566/69 "2010-04-03T18:31:52Z")
**Angel of the Lord** , your results are really something special! Now I’ve moved on from the brilliance of my Twitter posts and toward some stuff written by other people. **Translation:** Best dog for a short period of data is correct. But first, they lose faith in the dark. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness.” -Charles Dickens, _A Tale of Two Cities_ **Translation:** Travel hangar and industrial development in Developing countries, children in the current page. “It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of Communism with a Manifesto of the party itself.” -Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, _Manifesto of the Communist Party_ **Translation:** Tired of the traffic in Rome with his wife and children, the poor, as pale yellow “[T]he only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles…” -Jack Kerouac, _On the Road_ ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566/70 "2010-04-04T16:27:23Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > Apparently In real life I am Earnest Hemingway. Better stay away from shotguns then Ernie. or, should I say, as after 25 translations **I left a wife and mother** ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566/71 "2010-04-10T21:34:07Z")
Courtesy of the Bad Translator: > [@](#): > > It is interesting to compare the coming days, we believe that the last sunny day; Line width and bright stars, manage, courage, strong walls? Champagne missiles and bombs at night appears in the sky when I heard the explosion of a red state. Ah, says: “Stars and Stripes wave, but in March a free safety?” This was after 25 passes. The original? The first verse of the Star Spangled Banner: “Oh say. can you see…” etc. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566/72 "2010-04-10T21:58:42Z")
> [@](#): > > You can see the maestro in the winter without Interference." “Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-poetry-from-the-bad-translator/534566.md?page=3)