Translation Engines
I am astounded by the work of many translation engines. While they are hardly perfect for any language, many times one can piece together a basic sense of what is being said using the translation and a rudimentary understanding of the language. But what amazes me is that the language family from which English supposedly derives is amongst the poorest in actual translation into English. German must be a highly inflected language, for here is an example of a translation from an engine from Credo ut intelligam:
Marvelous BabelFish translationMysterium Crucis because the in this country normal catholic usually desperately of the church and because its orthodoxer with catholic despairs of his normal with catholics, a Web log does such as Mysterium Crucis well: There one discovers the truth, not only well oekumenisch irenisch interreligioes dialogisch its own, in the catholic church but the truth of the world. Thanks A plumb bob, wants. God bless you.
Here's the original:
Original from Credo ut intelligam Mysterium Crucis Weil hierzulande der normale Katholik meist an der Kirche verzweifelt und weil sein orthodoxer Mit-Katholik an seinen normalen Mit-Katholiken verzweifelt, tut ein Weblog wie Mysterium Crucis gut: Da entdeckt einer in der katholischen Kirche die Wahrheit, und zwar nicht nur gut ökumenisch-irenisch-interreligiös-dialogisch seine eigene, sondern die Wahrheit der Welt. Thanks a lot, Will. God bless you.
I am a cripple polyglot with only French (modern and Old), minimal Latin, and Welsh in my bag of language tricks--as a result I can puzzle out much Spanish (although probably with ludicrous errors in some simple matters). I read some Academic German, which is largely a matter of stringing together English cognates and looking up the verbs. But I would probably do better at attempting to make some sense of the message than relying upon the engine which says absolutely nothing to me at all. I'm particularly intrigued by the hyphenated string (which of course is completely untranslated) does it come out to something like, "ecumenical-irenic(peace seeking)-interreligious-dialogue?"
Oh well, it looks like I will just have to rely upon the occasional communication of M. Matthias, blogmeister of Credo ut intelligam. But those who read/understand German, please go to his site. It looks like there is a well of worthwhile material there.
