So it's my habit to check my tracker daily, just to see where my hits are coming from. And my main site got a hit today from a place that I did NOT recognize. Turns out that it's Google's automatic text translation software for webpages, translating my RPG parodies into French for someone.
I couldn't resist. I took seven years of French in high school, so I spent the next hour gleefully wandering around my parodies page, laughing at the wildly varying French translations of my stuff. Some of them are downright terrible (I tend to use a lot of slang and odd spelling, which completely boggles the translation program). And for your delectation:
First, there's the stuff that's either really weird or really pretty:
'Final Fantasy 7' and 'Final Fantasy Tactics' translate as, respectively, 'Imagination Finale VII' and 'La Tactique Finale D'Imagination'. I like that last one. La Tactique Finale D'Imagination. It sounds so pretty.
Oddly, the name 'Brad' (from Wild ARMs 2) translates as 'le clou à tête perdue', or 'the nail with a lost head'. In other words, the kind of brads you buy at the hardware store. Poor guy.
And Google's translation software can only handle a certain number of words before it poops out, so a lot of my longer parodies will abruptly turn back into English midway through. In one case, this was the result:
'Mais pour le crying out loud...'
How Pepe Le Pew can you get?
Next, below I've listed a whole bunch of random phrases, taken completely out of context; these were some of the best (or, conversely, the worst) that I found.
-----
RELM: Ouais, vous vieux farts loony! Pipe vers le bas!
FEI: Citan, dammit! Dites ces types que nous l'un ou l'autre n'avons pas eu le sexe!
MARCY: Karsh jaloux.
EIKO: Ouais, je me comporterai, je me comporterai. Mis me vers le bas.
VIKTOR: Pas vous 'ha' à moi.
MARINA: OUI, vous goober bleu-haired!
CID: Le hah de hah de hah d'ampèreheure...... gardons juste aller, correct? Il est obtenu pour y a une fin de ville près, avec un système de malt!
ASHLEY: J'ai dit, je vais à la maison. Je démissionne. Je me suis mis le feu. Je puis m'affliger mais je ne suis pas STUPIDE.
FLIK: Oaf de Musclebound?
SYDNEY: Ouais, mais elles étaient dorky. Maintenant elles sont fraîches!
-----
And, finally, the four best, the four that made me fall off my chair laughing until I turned purple:
CITAN: Ampèreheure, naturellement, je vois le problème. Le frangelizer interne est off-kilter par environ quatorze angströms... Je doivent re-coniverate le capacitation et l'espoir pour le meilleur. Avez-vous un miteralizer disponible du whackadoo 8-19ths?
(Damn, it's even crazier in French.)
ELLY: Bien! Très bien! Juste parce que je m'avère justement trouver vous attirant ne veut pas dire que je vais jamais vous toucher encore! J'aime Fei, et je vais rester avec lui, et c'est celui! Donnez-Maintenant Moi Ma Robe De Goddamn!
(It's the last part that gets me, every time. Ma Robe De Goddamn.)
SETZER: Les boobs de Nope, et de Celes ne sont pas tout à fait celui grand.
EDGAR: Vrai, très vrai... mais Celes a ces boobs gentils, ronds, fermes... une double poignée parfaite.
('Les boobs de Nope'? Edgar's line is almost perfectly translated, though... which makes it even funnier, to my way of thinking. 'Celes a ces boobs gentils...')
EIKO: Wuv I vous! Zidane était exact, vous sont le plus joli petit ami JAMAIS! Huggle de Huggle!
(This is the best of all. I want a t-shirt that has Eiko saying 'Wuv I vous! Huggle de huggle!' on it. Anyone else want one? Say 'yes' and I'll go get a Cafepress store!)
-----
Anyway, if you'd like to see what my stuff turns into for yourself, here's the link...
Replies: add your comment: currently 5 comments
Oh...my...gosh, maybe I'm just easily amused by this kind of thing, but I can't stop snickering. That Eiko quote *is* great, too. :D
Posted by Anonymous @ 07/25/2001 03:54 PM EST
.....
*sweat drop*
Sweet Jesus....that sounds so nutty!! LOL I don't understand French, but some things I guess I could pick up in all that gibberish. Heh...
Umm...."Huggle de huggle"???
O_O'
Posted by Wolf @ 07/25/2001 05:56 PM EST
Yeah, it's a bit funnier if you actually speak French, alas, but some of this stuff is SO on crack that anyone can get a laugh out of it... case in point, Ma Robe De Goddamn. And huggle de huggle!
Also, I feel that I should explain. I didn't spend seven years in high school, nor was that hyperbole. I took seven years of French in JUNIOR high and high school. I guess I was just too eager to get right down to the godawful translations to actually, say, tell the truth. D'oops.
And finally... whenever I look at this quote:
FLIK: Oaf de Musclebound?
I have this real urge to make Flik art out of it. Something Lichtenstein-esque. And put THAT on a t-shirt, too.
Posted by Mooncalf @ 07/25/2001 08:00 PM EST
Heh. Yeah, most of it you can still get kick out of.
I took Espanol in Junior/High school for 5 years; didn't get to start until 8th grade; that's just how our school system works. I thought about taking it in college again, since it's a language that might actually be USEFUL for my future! lol But..you know. ^_'
Huggle de huggle??
Posted by Wolf @ 07/26/2001 04:08 AM EST
I'll take a 'Huggle De Huggle' shirt and a 'Ma Robe De Goddamn' shirt. Howsaboot $50 for both?? Oh, and throw in one o' them calendars, too. That'll make it $75. Every artist needs cash (and ice cream). ^_^
Posted by Darkmoon the Mad @ 07/26/2001 04:19 AM EST
