The Babelfish Game

Have you ever played the Babelfish game? I won't say I invented it, but I did discover it for myself.

The way it works is that you put a sentence or, better yet, a paragraph into the Babelfish translator, translate it into another language, then either back into English or into yet another language and then back to English. The result can be hilarious, as when I put in something about my cat flopping over on the bed and how she likes to nurse on our arms. These banal statements became "She falls more towards the bed" and "nourishes on our arms".

It occurred to me that authors might enjoy taking their novel's blurb and putting it through the Babelfish game. For example, here is my blurb for An Involuntary King:

"An Involuntary King: His father dead at the hands of a usurper, a young king must prove himself in spite of his own self-doubt. He struggles against monumental opposition, while his beautiful young wife, the love of his life, is pursued by a darkly sensual mercenary."

What you need to do once it is translated is copy and paste the result, in this case the French, into the "Translate again" box and choose another set of languages. When I use Babelfish to translate that into French and then back again, I get this:

"An involuntary king: His generate completely with the hands one to usurp, a young king must be proven in spite of his own doubt of oneself. He fights against monumental opposition, whereas its beautiful young person marries, love of its life, is continued by a mercenary obscurely sensual."

I am so sure Lord Elerde would want his sensuality to be deemed "obscure" particularly by the king's "beautiful young person marries".

It gets funnier yet when you translate into one language and then another, then back into Engllish. This is English to French to German to English:

"An inadvertent king: Its completely cause to the hands; to abuse a young king must prove itself despite his own doubt of itself. It fights against monumental opposition, during their beautiful young person wife, Loves its life darkly by a sensuous mercenary one pursues."

Heavy, man! The father and the usurping get lost altogether.

Just for a lark, here is English to German to French to English:

"An involuntary king: Centres bring absolutely to a usurper violate, a young king owes to examine in spite of its own Coil-doubt. He fights against a remarkable opposition, his beautiful young woman who loves of her life, by dark sensual a mercenary one exerts."

You gotta look out for them Coil-doubts!

One hint: the game works better if the languages you translate from and to are not in the same language family. For example, Romance and German.

Have some fun with this. Would love to hear what Babelfish comes up with with your own novel's blurb!