Something gets lost in translation

Below are three translations of a paragraph from a front-page story in the 3/25/07 issue of The New York Times–one translation each by"Systran," "GoogleTranslate," (http://translate.google.com/translate) and "Free2Professional Translation" (http://www.freetranslation.com) ( In each, I translated first from the English text to French, and then from that French translation back into English. ("Systran" is a program which I bought–it sits in my browser and translates,upon command, any text that I have on the monitor screen from a newspaper, magazine, or other source that I have accessed on the Internet from one designated language to another; the other two are free programs in which the user copies and pastes whatever is on his screen and then designates another language that he wants it translated into.)

Something indeed did get lost in each translation.

The original text

An international regulatory system created after the war has prevented diamonds from fueling conflicts and financing terrorist networks. Even so, diamond mining in Sierra Leone remains a grim business that brings the government far too little revenue to right the devastated country, yet feeds off the desperation of some of the world’s poorest people. "The process is more to sanitize the industry from the market side rather than the supply side," said John Kanu, a policy adviser to the Integrated Diamond Management Program, a United States-backed effort to improve the government’s handling of diamond money. "To make it so people could go to buy a diamond ring and to say, ‘Yes, because of this system, there are no longer any blood diamonds. So my love, and my conscience, can sleep easily.’’’

So that anyone who knows French can see the translation from the English into the French, I am reproducing below that from "GoogleTranslate." (The repetition of the accented vowels wasn’t in the translation itself, but it only happened when I pasted it below.) The other two translations were approximately the same.

Un systèème de normalisation international créééé aprèès que la guerre ait empêêchéé des diamants de remplir de combustible des conflits et de financer des rééseaux de terroriste. Nééanmoins, le diamant extrayant en Sierra Leone reste des affaires sinistres qui apportent au gouvernement loin trop peu de revenu vers la droite le pays déévastéé, pourtant alimente outre du déésespoir de certaines des plus pauvres personnes du monde. «« Le processus est plus pour aseptiser l'industrie du côôtéé du marchéé plutôôt que le côôtéé de l'offre, »» a dit John Kanu, un conseiller de politique au programme intéégréé de gestion de diamant, un effort ÉÉtat-soutenu uni d'amééliorer la manipulation du gouvernement de l'argent de diamant. «« Lui faire ainsi des personnes pourrait aller acheter un anneau de diamant et pour dire, le `oui, en raison de ce systèème, làà ne sont plus aucun diamant de sang. Ainsi mon amour, et ma conscience, peuvent dormir facilement. '''

Just look at the screwups above in the French translation:

–"fueling conflicts" gets translated as combustible, the kind of fuel that you put in your car or in your furnace at home.

–"to right the devastated country" gets translated as vers la droite le pays dévasté, "toward the right (the right-hand side) the devastated country."

–"feeds off the desperation..." gets translated as alimente outre du..., "feeds besides..."

–"a United States-backed effort" gets translated as État-soutenu uni, "State-supported united."

Translation by "Google Translate."

An international system of standardization created after the war prevented diamonds from filling of fuel of the conflicts and to finance networks of terrorist. Nevertheless, diamond extracting in Sierra Leone however remains sinister businesses which bring to the government far not enough income towards the line the devastated country, feeds in addition to despair of some of the poorest people of the world. ""The process is more to asepticize the industry on the side of the market rather than the side of the offer,"" said John Kanu, an adviser of policy to the integrated programme of diamond management, a plain State-constant effort to improve handling of the government of the diamond money. ""To make Him people thus could go to buy a ring of diamond and for saying, the `yes, because of this system, there are not any more any diamond of blood. Thus my love, and my conscience, can sleep easily. '''

Translation by "Systran"

International year regulatory system created after the war has prevented diamonds from fueling conflicts and financing terrorist networks. Even so, diamond mining in Sierra Leone remains has grim business that brings the government far too little returned to right the devastated country, yet feeds off the desperation off nap off the world' S poorest people. ""The process is more to sanitize the industry from the market side rather than the supply side,"" said John Kanu, has policy adviser to the Integrated Diamond Management Program, has United States-backed effort to improve the government' S handling off diamond money. ""To make it so people could go to buy has diamond boxing ring and to say, ""Yes, because off this system, there are No to skirt any blood diamonds. So my coils, and my conscience, edge sleep easily.""

Translation by "Free2Profesioinal Translation."

A regulating international created system after the war prevented from diamonds of supplies conflicts and financing terrorist networks. Even if, the diamond extracts in Sierra leone remains a threatening matters that brings the government returned it far too small to the right the devastated country, nourishes nevertheless despair of certain ones of the people of the poorest world. "The procedure is more to disinfect the industry of the side of the market instead of the provision side," John Kanu says, a counselor of political one to the Direction Program of Integrated Diamond, an United States Supported the effort to improve the government checks diamond money. "To do it if the people could go to buy a diamond ring and say, 'Yes, because of this system, there is longer more any blood diamonds. Therefore my love, and my conscience, can sleep easily'.

With the amazing progress that has been made in synthesized voice and other digitized communication tools, it would not be surprising one day to see idiomatic translations between languages by websites such as those above, just as those made by human interpreters. But that day is not yet here.