20 June 2008

Follow-up

Actually, the whole damn thing is amusing. Not as good as counterfeit bills, but still a salient reminder of the need to double-check machine translations.

Some of my other favorites include:

"SPREEWALD ballooning kidnaps you at a quiet weather situation in the endless liberty of the sky."

"How would it be cycle tracks with a cycle tour on the possible one for many by the lovely nature of the Spreewald?"

"According to an old legend the Spreewald is an unsuccessful work of the devil. When he ploughed the river bed of the Spree with his yoke of oxen long time ago, he had already got on a good piece, but the two draught animals showed themselves tired and wanted no longer so properly. This did not fit in the bogy. He furiously threw his cap after the cattle creatures and yelled at it: "Damned lazy cattle fetches you might be caught by my grandmother"!

http://www.spreewald-info.com/en/index.php

In San Francisco, I knew a store that sold an impressive variety of imported Japanese candy. As stocking stuffers one year, I bought a selection of chewy candies of dubious flavors because the packaging was so incredible. I can't remember the exact wording, but the basic gist was that eating this candy was akin to watching snowy white maidens float above a river of pink smelling ice snow in the summer while butterflies sang. All recipients were amused, though the candy itself was judged "odd".

Extra points to anyone who knows why "bogy" slipped into the translation.

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