Last post, I mentioned this interesting online tool: babelfish. Babelfish is a translator. I was curious about this because it seems like you need a human touch to be an effective translator. I was also intruiged by this because sometimes randomness turns out interesting things.
This time, I decided to begin with a Spanish version of Genesis 1. I choose the version at “Bible Gateway” that basically looked like the Spanish words for “New International Version” I then clicked the button so that this would be translated into English.
This is what it came up with:
This is the actual English language version of Genesis 1:
”1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. “
Is it just because the words in the first version are fresh and new that I find them cooler than the actual words in Genesis 1? “God, in the principle…” I love that. Of course the clunky “it” in the next line has to go, but the image of the Earth being a “total chaos” is so much more interesting than “empty” and that the light “got to exist” after God said it did, it makes me think of light like a happy five year old, happy to get an extra snack.
I know that there’s probably some grump somewhere who finds this irreverant. I realize that error could creep in here. I’d never advise a person live their life according to words that were translated by a computer.
But there is some things that we’ll never have good words for. There are some ideas that every translation will always fail. I think anything that allows us to interact with scripture, and explore it, and view it in new ways is a really cool thing. I’m really looking foreward to playing with this new toy.
3 responses so far ↓
billydotcom // May 30, 2008 at 1:23 pm |
also being a geek I have used babel fish before. I wrote an e-mail in English and translated it into Portuguese to an English speaking friend in Brazil. I gave them the link and they used it to translate it back to English after they read as much as they could understand… It is cool because it doesn’t revert back to how it was written.
you should try that and see what you get.
Andrew Stevens // May 30, 2008 at 5:38 pm |
Here’s a good one. I put “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” into Babelfish and translated it into Spanish (“el alcohol esta dispuesto, pero la carne es debil”). I then took the resulting phrase and put it into Babelfish and translated it back.
It came out: “the alcohol is prepared, but the meat is weak.”
jeffsdeepthoughts // May 30, 2008 at 9:32 pm |
Thanks for the thoughts, guys. Andrew, your “discovery” was so cool that I put it in the ‘quote of the week’ section of my blog. (Top left)