Automatic translation machines are fun

Automatic translation machines are fun

I really enjoy playing with the automatic translation tool provided by altavista http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/. I am amazed of its good performance.

However, still far from perfect (How perfect can be a system dealing with human language without understanding it?) and this you can magnify when you make chains on translations on the same text.

Example 1

Let us begin with a text just I imagined yesterday:
to be or not to be, that is the question. whether is nobler to the mind, to suffer the slings and arrows of the outrageous fortune, and to battle against the see of trouble, or to sleep, to die.

We translate it into Spanish and back:
to be or not to be, that one is the question if he is nobler to the mind, to undergo the slings and the arrows of the outrageous fortune, and to fight against seeing of the hardship, or to sleep, to die.

And then to German and back:
Its or not to be, this is to be died the question, if it is more splendid to the understanding, for going through the belts and the arrows of the outrageous fortune, and fights against seeing the hardness, or sleeping.

And then to Italian and back:
Relative or not to be, this must be died the question, if it is more splendid to the understanding, in order to pass through the straps and outrageous fortune of the arrows and the fights against seeing the hardness, to sleep.

And then to Portuguese and back:
Relative or not to be, this must have died the question, for will be more splendid with understanding, the end to pass the leather straps and the richness outrageous the arrows and the combat to see the meeting hardness, to sleep.

And then to Spanish and back:
The relative or not to be, this must have died the question, for the will is more splendid with understanding, the end to pass the strap of outrageous leather and the wealth the arrows and the combat to see the hardness of the meeting, to sleep.

And then to German and back: Relatives or not to be, this must the question have died, because the will is more wonderful with understanding, the end for leading the bridge impudent leather and the abundance of the arrows and of the fight, in order to see the hardness of the session, in order to sleep.

Well, I had to stop before things got worse. I was especially worried about the 'combat to see the meeting hardness' and the 'pass the strap of outrageous leather'. It was getting into a kind of sado-maso mood.

Example 2

What about iterations with only one language?

Let's say that we try the same text as above (I like it more the more I read it) but this time we just iterate a number of times translating from English to language A and back.

These are the results with:

Spanish:
to be or not to be, that one is the question if it is but noble to the mind to experience the slings and the arrows of the strange fortune or to fight against the sea of the difficulty or to sleep, to die

German:
Its or it, should not be those the question, whether one understands it, to which for combat belts and to the arrows of the impudent fortune or against the sea of the trouble is more wonderful, or sleep suffers for dying

French:
to be or not to be, it is the question if it is nobler with the spirit to suffer the supports and the arrows from unworthy fortune or to fight against the sea of the trouble or to sleep, to die

Italian:
to be or not to be, that one is the question if he is nobler to the mind to suffer the connections and the arrows the disowned fortune or to fight against the difficulty sea or to sleep, gives to the dices

Note how the German language is the only one that destroys the first sentence (in any case quite clear to me). The rest I would say is quite OK. By the way. From where came the 'dices' in the Italian test?


Irrelevant Thoughts does not necessarily agree with EMBL directives.