Babelfish Translations Of Shakespeare!

OK on-line Babelfish mis-translations seem to have caught our imagination for a while.

Please read my previous short post first - otherwise this won't make any sense. Press HERE

Suppose Shakespeare had this facility available for him to present his masterpieces to non English speaking countries.

As in my last post I translated from English to French and back to English.

Let's see what emerges when I apply this to the Bard's very well known piece from Richard III Act 5, Scene 4. lines 7-10

SCENE IV
Another part of the Field.

[Alarum; excursions. Enter NORFOLK and forces; to him CATESBY]

CATESBY
Rescue, my Lord of Norfolk, rescue, rescue!
The king enacts more wonders than a man,
Daring an opposite to every danger:
His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights,
Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death.
Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost!

[Alarum. Enter KING RICHARD]

KING RICHARD
A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

CATESBY
Withdraw, my lord! I'll help you to a horse.

KING RICHARD
Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
And I will stand the hazard of the die:
I think there be six Richmonds in the field:
Five have I slain to-day instead of him.
--A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

[Exeunt.]

. . . . sorry to all Shakespearean buffs but here is the result!

Did I hear a few of you shouting, "Heresy"? LOL

SCENE IV
Another part of the field.

[Alarum; excursions. Write the NORFOLK and the forces; with him CATESBY.]

CATESBY
Delivery, my lord of Norfolk, delivery, delivery!
The king issues more wonders than a man,
Audacity opposite each danger:
Its horse is massacred, and all with foot it fights,
Recherche for Richmond in the throat of death.
The delivery, the lord right, or the day are lost!

[Alarum. Introduce KING RICHARD.]

KING RICHARD
A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

CATESBY
Withdraw you, my lord! I'll help of you with a horse.

KING RICHARD
Slave, I placed my life on cast iron,
And I will hold the risk of the matrix:
I think there is of six Richmonds in the field:
Five have I massacred today instead of him.
-- A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

[Exeunt.]
Well it did get, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" right. Well done Babelfish - you have done Shakespeare proud, in part!



Just time for another well known quote, again from Richard III but this time from Act 1, Scene 1, lines 1-4, the opening of the play. I wonder what Shakespeare would have thought!! I can feel his bones shaking in his winter of discontent!! LOL


RICHARD:
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that low'r'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

I know a battle is coming but Babelfish does a pretty good demolition job too.

English to French and back to English.

RICHARD:
Now is the winter of our glorious dissatisfaction
Made by this wire with York;
And all the clouds which low'r'd on our house
In the deep chest of the ocean buried.

Not sure where 'the son' went! Perhaps to York or to the battle!

But what about the other languages?

From English to German and back to English.

RICHARD:
Now is the winter of our discontent
Education of splendourful summers by this son of York;
And all clouds the low'r' d to our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean bury.

. . . . . and Russian:

RICHARD:
Now depends on this son of the yoke
Which is the winter of our dissatisfaction and can do beautiful summer;
And all clouds low' r' d in our houses
Of the chest where the ocean which is buried is deep.

Hmm! Lost a bit of the Bard's original intention! Something sadly amiss here. Will would most certainly be not amused!

. . . but what about Traditional Chinese:

RICHARD:The present is in the winter our discontent
The brilliance summer which does by York's this son;
And all cloud low' r' d in ours house's
The sea profound bosom which buries.

'Wong' again, Mr Wong! Doesn't quite have the same 'ring' as the original does it?

I shall spare you the torture of what Babelfish does in Greek, Polish and Spanish.

And just imagine what would emerge if I discussed Macbeth's meeting with the three witches, his wife's sight of the dagger before her, Burnham Wood marching, Juliet's rendition of, "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

The mind boggles!

Shall I treat us to some more one day?

Something Lost (or found) In The Translation

Have you ever heard of Babelfish?

It is an on-line translation service. Well I use the term loosely because it is hardly an accurate means of communicating to our friends with limited English abilities.

Our family has a dear French lady friend and we communicate with her regularly. Trouble is both Mrs Bluelights and I are rather rusty at French. So we resort to using babelfish and risk sometimes sending rather inaccurate dialogue.

Last Christmas we sent our friend a French translation of our latest news and of course as normal practice we called on the services of Babelfish.

I entered our English letter and requested translation into French and then I had an idea of asking it to translate back into English . . . . . and the result was a hoot!

Here is part of the letter we sent in original English:

Thank you very much for your recent letter and the Christmas photographs.
We are pleased that you are looking so well and we notice your son has not changed very much. What a handsome young man he is isn’t he?

Before Christmas we were invited by our daughter to attend a production of her pupils performing the school’s annual Nativity play. Our daughter and her colleague teacher were congratulated in front of the whole assembly by the Head Teacher for a very professional performance and all the hard work they had put into it. About 200 parents attended the performance which was really most enjoyable.

The weather has been very harsh this year with all the snow, ice and freezing temperatures. The roads have been very treacherous and the main motorways have been at a standstill. Many schools were closed, including our children’s schools and everywhere you looked there was an army of snowmen on patrol!

Our son and 9 other friends rolled a huge snowball almost 2 metres high and it was so heavy they could not push it any further. All the snow and winter scenery look very nice and we have taken lots of photographs.

. . . . and here is the English translation back from the French translation. Glad our lives don't depend on the accuracy of translation:

Thank you infinitely of your recent letter and the photographs of Christmas. We are happy that you look at so much well and we note that your son did not change much. Which young man beautiful it is, is not it?

Before Christmas were invited to us by our daughter to witness a production of his pupils carrying out the annual nativity of the school play. Our daughter and her professor of colleague were happiness in front of the whole assembly by the main teacher for a very professional execution and all the hard labour they had put in it. Approximately 200 parents attended the execution which was really most pleasant.

Time was very hard this year with all snow, freezes and temperatures of congelation. The roads were very unfair and the principal motorways were with a stop. Much of schools were closed, including the schools of our children and you looked at everywhere there was an army of the fellows of snow on the patrol.

Our son and 9 other friends rolled an enormous snowball almost 2 meters in height and it was so heavy they could not push it to promote. All landscape of snow and d' winter look at very nice and we took a good number of photographs.

_________________

I'll be posting some more news about my post hospital situation soon but allowing for another setback things are progressing well and I am sure I won't need my remaining stick for long.

Looking at some of your comments it appears that Google translate is much more accurate, at least into and out of French - thank you! But it's nowhere near as funny.