Constraint n°104
The Absurd Translation
Translate a text into a language you don't speak. Without a dictionary.
Take a text in your language. 'Translate' it into a language you don't speak, using only what you imagine the words should sound like. The result is a new text.
Instructions
- Choose a short text: a poem, a recipe, a weather forecast. Something with ten to twenty sentences.
- Choose a language you don't speak at all. Japanese, Finnish, Swahili...
- 'Translate' each sentence. Invent words that sound right to you. Don't look anything up.
- Read your translation aloud. Record yourself.
- If possible, have a speaker of that language read your text. Note their reaction.
Variants
Have the same text 'translated' by several people into the same unknown language. Compare the inventions.
Translate a text from an unknown language into your own, purely by intuition.
Inspired by
Raymond Queneau →
Sensitivity :
🟢
Hashtag : #ouviepo_traductionAbsurde
Take the challenge!
Take on this constraint and leave your trace.