Southwest path information gap, a cloister

Filed by Victor Mair under Lost in translation

Someone recently told Tom Bishop (creator of Wenlin software for learning Chinese) that Google Translate is really good now, so he tried translating this English paragraph into Chinese (chosen randomly from the cave adventure game):

You are on one side of a large, deep chasm.  A heavy white mist rising up from below obscures all view of the far side.  A southwest path leads away from the chasm into a winding corridor.

The result is:

Nín shì yīgè dà de, shēn de hónggōu de yībiān. Yīgè chénzhòng de bái wù, cóng xiàmiàn shàngshēng yǎngàile suǒyǒu de yuǎnfāng de kànfǎ. Xīnán lùjìng xìnxī hónggōu, chéngwéi yīgè huíláng. 您是一个大的，深的鸿沟的一边。一个沉重的白雾，从下面上升掩盖了所有的远方的看法。西南路径信息鸿沟，成为一个回廊。

 

And the result of converting that Chinese back to English is:

You are a big, deep side of the gap. A heavy white mist, rising from below to cover all of the distant view. Southwest path information gap, a cloister.

Converting that back into Chinese produces:

Nǐ shì yīgè dà de chājù shēn chù. Yīgè chénzhòng de bái wù, cóng xiàmiàn shàngshēng dào hángài suǒyǒu de yuǎnjǐng. Xīnán lùjìng xìnxī de chājù, huíláng. 你是一个大的差距深处。一个沉重的白雾，从下面上升到涵盖所有的远景。西南路径信息的差距，回廊。

Back to English:

You are a big gap between the depths. A heavy white mist, rising from below to cover all of the vision. Southwest path information gaps, corridors.

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