Der Untergang after a cycle through Translation Party

Monday, September 28, 2009

Translation Party is this site, where you input a phrase which then is translated into Japanese, back into English, back into Japanese, back into English and so on until the phrase finally reaches equilibrium, which means being translated the same way two times in a row. Since everyone else has made a version of that scene from Der Untergang where the war is finally lost for the German side and Hitler flips out I thought I would try using that, but after first translating the original German into English using Google.

Surprisingly, it's still accurate about half of the time.



What about the other half? Here's one example:

Steiner couldn't mobilize enough men was translated into English as Steiner could not massage enough troops for an attack. Then after a few rounds in Japanese the word enough (juubun) was mistaken for 10 minutes (both are written the same way in Japanese, as 十分), and the eventual result was 10-minute massage is not to attack the Steiner forces.

You can see the original script in German here, and the original subtitles are in this video.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Input:

Wants pawn term, dere worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage, honor itch offer lodge, dock, florist. Disk ladle gull orphan worry putty ladle rat cluck wetter ladle rat hut, an fur disk raisin pimple colder Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.

Output, after 14 translation cycles:

Uettokomingu, itching, pawn shop, the other provisions of the bid, the dock is a florist Sukyandarupottopotto dere gull hoe lift the Lodge is proud to offer rigging. Pan American fur disk raisin pimple Pottopottopottokamome Rattogayagaya cold wet rat Rattorottonhatto orphan worry putty disk.

... but did not reach equilibrium. In fact, it seems to have locked up.

I used to break my toys as a child too... :-)

Sarah said...

Input:

Wants pawn term, dere worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage, honor itch offer lodge, dock, florist. Disk ladle gull orphan worry putty ladle rat cluck wetter ladle rat hut, an fur disk raisin pimple colder Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.

Output, after 14 translation cycles:

Uettokomingu, itching, pawn shop, the other provisions of the bid, the dock is a florist Sukyandarupottopotto dere gull hoe lift the Lodge is proud to offer rigging. Pan American fur disk raisin pimple Pottopottopottokamome Rattogayagaya cold wet rat Rattorottonhatto orphan worry putty disk.

... but did not reach equilibrium. In fact, it seems to have locked up.

I used to break my toys as a child too... :-)

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