Lost In Translation

You may well be familiar with a rather useful website called Babelfish. Hosted by Yahoo! it uses technology created by Systran to instantly translate your text or website from one language to another for free. Unsurprisingly the service has limitations. It won't handle slang too well and sometimes it will fail on the context of a word. However this can make for some funny translations.

If you're bored you can have some fun by translating some text into a different language, then translating the result into yet another language and so on. Finally take the last result and translate it back into English and see how much your text has changed. I'll show you what I mean. Below is the first verse from Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality.
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see.
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy.
Because I'm easy come, easy go, a little high,little low.
Anyway the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me.
To me.

Now, using Babelfish, I translate it to French, then to German, then to Italian, then to Portugese and finally back to English. Would you recognise the song from...

Come does the beginning from this real one makes the life? It is only of luxury? Intercepted in a Zerbröckeln, it has certain escape of the truth. If you are on the awares, she watches ignition with skies and you who she sees. I' M. - of the right a deficient boy, I do not have the necessity of the mercy. Of I' the m comes. simple, simply the takeoff, small low. To all the impacts of the event of the wind, doesn' T-material really with me. With me.

The Lost In Translation website automates the whole process for you. It might make a good pub quiz round.