Friday, August 8, 2008

Lost in translation

This is what happened when I tried Google Translation successively to come back to where I started from. Frankly I still surprised it kept what it did.
English: I live in house of mud at bank of river.
Arabic: أعيش في بيت من الطين في مصرف لنهر.
Chinese: 我住在一所房子的泥浆,在河岸。
Danish: Jeg bor i en mudder hus til banken.
Dutch: Ik woon in een huis in de modder van de bank.
French: Je vis dans une maison dans la boue de la banque.
German: Ich lebe in einem Haus im Schlamm von der Bank.
Hindi: मेरे जीवन में एक घर में मिट्टी के बैंक है .
Italian: Io vivo in una casa di fango in banca.
Japanese: 私の家に住んで泥の銀行です。
Portuguese: Eu vivo na lama-casa bancária.
Spanish: Yo vivo en casa de barro banco.
English: I live at home mud bank.

Single step English-Hindi-English was better.
मेरे जीवन में मिट्टी के घर पर बैंक की नदी है .
I live in mud homes on the banks of the river.

I wonder which trajectory leads to minimum loss of information for given set of languages. It would be an interesting exercise for sure. Anyone has time?

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