Poems By Google Translate: September 2012

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

John Keats' "On His Blindness"

Original Poem	Translation
When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest he returning chide, "Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?" I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts: who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed And post o'er land and ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait."	I saw a chicken easy Over half of the world's destruction Death has a tendency to hide The Rainbow Spirit realistic This attitude, so that the My my direct line "God works the exact date, refused to burn?" I asked if he was naive. But patience to prevent The overall response rate well: "it is not God. Study, two gift In particular, according to the report. conditions top 100,000 And other countries, and more Some people worship God, just sit and wait. "

Original Poem

Translation

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."

I saw a chicken easy
Over half of the world's destruction
Death has a tendency to hide
The Rainbow Spirit realistic
This attitude, so that the
My my direct line
"God works the exact date, refused to burn?"
I asked if he was naive. But patience to prevent
The overall response rate well: "it is not God.
Study, two gift
In particular, according to the report. conditions
top 100,000
And other countries, and more
Some people worship God, just sit and wait. "

The Method

Poems by Google Translate is a method for demonstrating the indeterminacy of translation and simultaneously deconstructing famous literature by turning it into ridiculous nonsense. The way I do this is, I find the poem on google, remove any words/grammatical structural defects that Google Translate won't be able to recognize (for instance "hath" or "'twould") then feed it through in usually between 10 and 20 different languages (copying and pasting the new translation each time before I change languages). The result is a new, somewhat different piece of art that is sometimes unrecognizable. Did I mention that I've got a little bit of writer's block right now?