Shakespeare Translation Party

If you’re a geek you’ve probably seen a whole variety of screenshots coming out of Translation Party, the script that takes an English phrase and translates it back and forth into Japanese before finally settling on an equilibrium – where the Engrish translates into Japanese in such a way that it translates back into the same Engrish. Maybe I’m just starved for content today, but I just had to throw it some Shakespeare.  Unfortunately it doesn’t have a good way to link directly to results :(, and I don’t have the time to sit and generate a boatload of screenshots, so I’ll leave it up to your imaginations and see what you come up with.

Here’s a few that I tried, although it loses the effect without seeing it worked out on the fly…

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate” takes only 5 steps before reaching equilibrium with “This summer I am, I would have to compare? Your warm and beautiful.”

“Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle toward my hand?” takes 7 steps to reach “To do this, please see the dagger in the handle toward my hand?”

Ah, here’s a good one!  “To be, or not to be?” —>  “Or to not?”

“Or to not?” —>  “Whether or not?”

“Whether or not?” –> “Whether?”

“Whether?”  –> “Whether?”

(For some reason that reminds me of my old Esperanto lessons.  Cxu esti, aux ne esti!)

UPDATED:  Never, never, never, never, never.

8 thoughts on “Shakespeare Translation Party

  1. 9 steps for "All the world's a stage and the men and women merely players" to turn into this: "He is a player on the world stage for all women and men."

  2. I thought maybe "let me not to the marriage of true minds…" but that one comes out a little different, as "I must recognize the marriage of true minds of your failure."

  3. You got the quote right! How strange that it would give you a different equilibrium. I tried it again and got the same one.

    Try this one, then. What was this quote originally?

    Nothing nothing at all. See you!

  4. Mi ne sciis, ke vi la lingvon internacian parolas. Kial mi amas la belan lingvon! Mi ege bedauxras, ke mankas al me la tempo–ne, ke me ne findas aux faras le tempon–por uzi Esperanton suficxe. Jen–la unua parto de "La Signoro de la Ringoj," de William Auld tradukita, kiun mi acxetis, sed neniam legis. Tempo, tempo: kion gxi iras?

  5. I have to admit, Craig, that I got the first part ("I did not know that you speak the International Language. I love the/this beautiful language"), but had to translate the rest. The translator's having trouble with "signoro", however. Sign? Song? … googling….oh! Lord of the Rings? Did not recognize the that one.

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