tcSHILLINGFORD.org

Another cause worth backing

Yesterday, Marcelo Rivera, today, GOB Bluth:

Thanks to Stacey.

Marcelo Rivera

My friend Julia has a deep and abiding love for Central America.  Her love is for Honduras in particular (with this business causing her no small amount of distress), but it extends in personal way to, essentially, all those poor who live and toil in the Spanish sun.  Anyway, she and some of her talented friends were in El Salvador filming a documentary on the after-effects of the El Salvador civil war (which ended in ‘92), when the news of the disappearance of Marcelo Rivera came out.  The civil war documentary was put on hold, and they filmed this short film on Rivera.  It’s 8 minutes long, and is both infuriating and compassionate.  Tell your friends.

Eagle, or if you need me?

Via Language Hat comes this piece of irresistible fun:

Translation Party translates any English phrase into Japanese using Google’s translator.  It then translates that new, slightly altered translation into English, and the new English phrase into Japanese, on and on, until Google’s Japanese phrase and English phrase stop changing.  The phrase has now reached equilibrium.

Because of the difficulty of translation, some odd things happen.  For your enjoyment, I T-partied the first section of my favorite poem.  Here is the original:

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope
I no longer strive to strive toward such things
(Why should the aged eagle spread its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?

Because I do not hope to know again
The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessed face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice

And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgment not be too heavy upon us

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

And here is the same words, in Japanese-English equilbrium:

To enable it again, I do not expect
Because, I think
To do this, I do not expect
Range of men, the gift of hope this man
Work effort
(Eagle, or if you need me?)
Why should mourn
, Disappeared in the normal control

Not again
Weakly positive hours of glory
Because, I think
I know I know
1:00, 2 single power supply
Because I can not drink
Here, roads and trees and flowers in spring and

Because, I know time is always
Location is always the only place
Also, only one, in fact, real-time
Only a single location
I am me and I will love them
I renounce the blessed face
And renounce the voice
To enable it again, I cannot be expected to
Bon appetite, to build something
According to this happy

We are praying for the mercy of God
I can remember a prayer
To discuss their problems, many
Description excessive
To enable it again, I do not expect
Let’s answer these words
However, this does not –
The Company will be determined by the size of the

In the calculation, under the wings of a bird
However, the fans beat the air
A small flow of dry air
The following is a hair
We pay particular attention
If you have questions, please sit down

Our time of death, pray for sinners
This is our time to pray for the death of us.

The italicized lines  were unable to reach equilibrium.  Generally, when that happens, the line in question flips between two results.  See here for an example in which “The air which is now thoroughly small and dry” flops from “A small flow of dry air” and “Small flow of dry air”.   Google has some trouble with punctuation.  Including a full-stop in a phrase will change the end result significantly, and sometimes punctuation appears where there was none before.  I threw it a few sentences of Finnegans Wake and my computer started to smoke, so I’d recommend more casual language for other users.