I invented* a dumb internet game. Here are the basic rules:

1. Take a sentence in English (or whatever language you prefer).
2. Run it through Bing Translator.
3. Copy the translated sentence into the first Bing Translator window (set the first window to “Auto-Detect”), and translate it into a third language.
4. Copy that sentence into the first window…..and you get the idea from there.
5. Repeat as much as you want.
6. Translate the multiply-translated sentence back into whatever language you started with.
7. See how bizarrely different it is.

I started with “These are the times that try men’s souls,” because for some entirely-made-up reason I think Thomas Paine would approve of this. Also because it’s a grammatically simple sentence with small, commonly-used words. And because it was the first thing that popped into my head.

Through 28 languages, “These are the times that try men’s souls” becomes “Today, is one of the foundations of the older brother.”

Bing Translator has way more than 28 languages, but I stuck to the ones that use the Latin alphabet (meaning no Arabic, Bulgarian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Russian, Thai, etc.) Advanced BTTG players can try using all the alphabets.

Like I said, it’s a stupid game.

Here are the different translations. I went back and translated each step into English, so you can see how the translator changes it over time.

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English: These are the times that try men’s souls.

Englsh to Catalan: Aquestes són les vegades que les ànimes dels homes. (These are the times that the souls of men.)

Catalan to Czech: To jsou chvíle, že duše lidí. (This is the moment that the souls of the people.)

Czech to Danish: Dette er i øjeblikket at sjælene af mennesker. (This is currently the souls of people.)

Danish to Dutch: Dit is momenteel de zielen van mensen. (This is currently the souls of people.)

Dutch to Estonian: See on praegu inimeste hinge. (It is currently in the human soul.)

Estonian to Finnish: Nykyään on ihmisen sielu. (Today, it is the human soul.)

Finnish to French: Aujourd’hui, c’est l’âme humaine. (Today, it is the human soul.)

French to German: Heute ist es die menschliche Seele. (Today, it is the human soul.)

German to Haitian Creole: Jodi a, sa se nanm moun. (Today, this is the spirit of the sons of men.)

Haitian Creole to Hmong Daw: Hnub no, qhov no yog ib tus tug tub ntawm tus txiv neej tus dab. (Today, this is one of the sons of the man‘s brother in law.)

Hmong Daw** to Hungarian: Ma ez az egyik testvér az ember fia törvény. (Today it is one of the brothers of the son of man law.)

Hungarian to Indonesian: Hari ini adalah salah satu bersaudara anak laki-laki hukum. (Today it is one of the boy’s brothers in law.)

Indonesian to Italian: Oggi è uno dei fratelli del ragazzo nella legge. (Today is one of the boy’s brothers in law.)

Italian to Latvian: Šodien ir viena no zēna brāļi tiesībās. (Today is one of his brothers in law.)

Latvian to Lithuanian: Šiandien yra vienas iš jo brolių pagrindai. (Today is one of his brothers the basics.)

Lithuanian to Malay: Hari ini adalah salah satu daripada saudara-saudaranya asas-asas. (Today is one of his brothers the basics.)

Malay to Maltese: Illum huwa wieħed minn ħutu il-bażiċi. (Today it is one of his brothers the basics.)

Maltese to Norwegian: I dag er det en av hans brødre grunnleggende. (Today, it is one of his brothers basics.)

Norwegian to Polish: Dziś jest to jeden z jego braci podstawy. (Today it is one of his brothers the basics.)

Polish to Portuguese: Hoje é um dos seus irmãos, o básico. (Today is one of his brothers, the basics.)

Portuguese to Romanian: Astăzi este unul dintre fraţii lui, elementele de bază. (Today it is one of his brothers, the basics.)

Romanian to Slovak: Dnes je jeden z jeho bratov, základy. (Today, it is one of his brothers, the basics.)

Slovak to Slovenian: Danes je eden od njegovih bratov, osnove. (Today, one of his brothers, the basics.)

Slovenian to Spanish: Hoy, uno de sus hermanos, los conceptos básicos. (Today, one of his brothers, the basics.)

Spanish to Swedish: Idag, en av hans bröder, grunderna. (Today, one of his brothers, the basics.)

Swedish to Turkish: Bugün, biri bir kardeşleri temelleri. (Today, one of the foundations of a brethren.)

Turkish to Vietnamese: Hôm nay, một trong những nền tảng của một anh trai. (Today, one of the foundations of an older brother.)

Vietnamese to Welsh: Heddiw, yn un o sylfeini’r brawd hŷn.

Welsh to English: Today, is one of the foundations of the older brother.

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Photo credit: By Ionut Cojocaru (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

* I very much doubt that I’m the first person to think of this, but whatever.

** At this point, the “Auto-Detect” feature told me the Hmong Daw sentence was in English. I had to manually change the setting to Hmong Daw, but I went back to Auto-Detect on the next language.