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Lost in the Translation : the answers
The two remembered mistranslated titles that started this thread, the
Hal Clement and the Roger Zelazny, make me think the original inspiration
may have been a competition in April 1977 edition of Fantasy and
Science Fiction (reprinted in Oi
Robot), which has them inslightly different forms, as A
Serious Undertaking, and He Has A Hole in His Head, and His Teeth
Glow in the Dark, respectively. The same competition also gives The
Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth with the note “research
has failed to reveal the original of this obvious double translation”.
These titles are spoof translations, but some fun can also generated
with the Babelfish
translation system. I’ve included some of the better ones here,
too. (I’m surprised at how often the Babelfish translations are
ungrammatical – it must use a very simple word substitution algorithm.
But I’m also surprised at how often it manages to reproduce the exact title
– more often via German than via French, it must be said.)
So, the answers to the Lost in Translation
quiz
- Foundation trilogy
- Basement trilogy — (Andrew Plotkin)
- Foundation
- Foundation and Empire
- Colonial Basement — (Jay Random)
- Second Foundation
- Sub-Basement — (Jay Random)
- Foundation’s Edge
- Basement Wall — (Jay Random)
- The Edge of the Base — (Babelfish,
English/French/English)
- Foundation and Earth
- Basement And Subsoil — (Jay Random)
- Base and Ground — (Babelfish, English/French/English)
- Basis and Mass — (Babelfish, English/German/English)
- Prelude to Foundation
- Excavation — (Jay Random)
- Forward the Foundation
- Towards The Front Of The Basement — (Jay Random)
- Dispatch the Base — (Babelfish, English/French/English)
- Send After to Basis — (Babelfish,
English/German/English)
- I Robot
- That’s me: Mr Robot — (Joe Slater)
- Against a Dark Background
- In Relief — (Zara Bee)
- On Dark a Bottom — (Babelfish, English/French/English)
- Feersum Endjinn
- Skairy Mowter — (Paul Clarke)
- One for the Morning Glory
- The Single Columbine — (Jo Walton)
- The Demolished Man
- The Man who was Killed — (Lance Purple)
- Fahrenheit 451
- Approximately 218.5555 Celsius — (Brent P. Newhall)
- Glory Season
- In The Future, Everyone Will Be Famous for Fifteen Weeks
— (Andrew Plotkin)
- Stand on Zanzibar
- The Tanzanian Easel — (Danny Sichel)
- Rogue Moon
- Rascal Displays his Buttocks — (Andy Hatt)
- Shards of Honour
- Fragments of Repute — (Robert A. Woodward)
- Falling Free
- Weightless — (Robert A. Woodward)
- Speaker for the Dead
- Medium — (Zara Bee)
- Loudspeaker for the Dead — (Babelfish,
English/German/English)
- The Fortunate Fall
- The Lucky Season Before Winter — (Thomas Yan)
- The Lucky Case — (Babelfish, English/German/English)
- Downbelow Station
- Australia Post — (Zara Bee)
- Going Under, Standing Still (owes something to Spider
Robinson, no doubt) — (Andrew Plotkin)
- Subway — (Zara Bee)
- Childhood’s End
- Puberty — (Andrew Plotkin)
- The Songs of Distant Earth
- Music From Remote Ground — (Mark Hughes)
- Songs Far Away from the Ground — (Babelfish,
English/French/English)
- Mission of Gravity
- A Very Important Mission — (JohnnyPez9)
- The Hidden Land
- The Covered Ground — (Thomas Yan)
- The Whim of the Dragon
- The Lizard’s Fancy — (Thomas Yan)
- The Dubious Hills
- Dunno About Those Mountains — (Thomas Yan)
- The Secret Country
- The Place That Isn’t Supposed to be Talked About —
(Thomas Yan)
-
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
-
The Famous People I Control Enjoy the Beach — (Timothy J. Gawne)
Stephen Donaldson
- The Power That Preserves
- Jam-Making Energy — (Mark Hughes)
- The Energy Memories — (Babelfish,
English/German/English)
- The Price of the Stars
- Huge Salaries — (Samuel Paik)
- The Price of the Asterisks — (Babelfish,
English/German/English)
Umberto Eco
- Foucault’s Pendulum
- Foucault’s Gravity Actuated Freely Swinging Body —
(Jonathan W Hendry)
- Axiomatic
- Completely Basic — (Gareth Wilson)
- Distress
- Permutation City
Harlan Ellison
- “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman
- “Seek Forgiveness for your Sins, Clown,” ordered
the Clockmaker — (Keith Morrison)
- I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
- I Am Missing an Oral Orifice and Am Required to Yell
Piercingly — (Keith Morrison)
- I Don’t Have Lips So I Talk Very Loudly — (Joe Slater)
- Make Room! Make Room!
- Get out of My Way! Get out of My Way! — (Joe Slater)
- Stranger in a Strange Land
- The Alien at Home — (David Given)
- Foreigner Not in his Homeland — (Brent P. Newhall)
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
- Bondage Girl on the Moon — (Andrew Plotkin)
- Star Beast
- Lead Animal — (David Given)
- To Sail Beyond the Sunset
- Westward Boating — (David Given)
- To Navigate Beyond Laying Down Sun — (Babelfish,
English/French/English)
Frank Herbert
- Dune
- A Pile of Sand — (Euan Troup)
- Giants’ Star
- Featuring The Acromegalics — (Danny Sichel)
Norton Juster
- The Phantom Tollbooth
- The Fictitious Revenue Collection Enclosure — (Jonathan
W Hendry)
Stephen King
- Needful Things
- Stuff You Must Have — (Mark Hughes)
- Misery
- Beggars in Spain
- Hispanic Mendicants — (Angus MacSpon)
- The Left Hand of Darkness
- On the Other Hand, It’s Dark — (Joe Slater)
Fritz Leiber
- Our Lady of Darkness
- Our Goth Chick — (Samuel Paik)
- Our Lady of the Density — (Babelfish,
English/German/English)
Jonathan Lethem
- Gun, with Occasional Music
- Pistols, Sometimes With Songs — (Mark Hughes)
H. P. Lovecraft
- At the Mountains of Madness
- Adjacent To The Conspicuous Vertically Projecting Landmasses
Of Alienation, Derangement, and Aberration — (Jonathan W
Hendry)
George R.R. Martin
- Dying of the Light
- Switching off the Lamp — (Jo Walton)
- Tuf Voyaging
- Difficult Journey — (Andrew Plotkin)
Julian May
- The Many-Coloured Land
- Kaleidoscopic Countrysides — (Angus MacSpon)
Ian McDonald
- Terminal Cafe
- Cybercafe — (Mark Hughes)
- Beauty
- Attractiveness — (Jo Walton)
- Inconstant Moon
- Incontinent Moon — (Steve Patterson)
- Ringworld
- Call the Earth — (Angus MacSpon)
- Circular Planet — (Lance Purple)
- Planet of Jewellery! — (Joe Slater)
- The Integral Trees
- Riemann Sum Arboretum — (Jeff Suzuki)
- The Mote in God’s Eye
- &ldquoI’ve Got Something In My Eye”, Cried God! —
(Mark Hughes)
- The Gripping Hand
- The Hand That Holds — (Mark Hughes)
- Enthralling the Hand — (Babelfish,
English/French/English)
George Orwell
- 1984
- MCMLXXXIV — (Jonathan W Hendry)
H. Beam Piper
- Little Fuzzy
- Short Hairy People — (Lance Purple)
- Slightly Furry — (Mark Hughes)
- Rather Uncertain — (Andy Hatt)
- Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen
- Duke Calvin From Another Time — (Mark Hughes)
- Gateway
- Door — (Brent P. Newhall)
- Man Plus
- Male Addition — (Keith Morrison)
- Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
- Past the Sad Speed of Light Gravitational Boundary —
(Keith Morrison)
- The Space Merchants
- Buyers and Sellers of Emptiness — (Brent P. Newhall)
- Interesting Times
- Multiple Usurers — (Danny Sichel)
Christopher Priest
- Melancholy Elephants
- Sad Pachyderms — (Steve Patterson)
- Dying Inside
- Gangrene — (Andrew Plotkin)
- Hawksbill Station
- Waypoint for Birds’ Beaks — (Brent P. Newhall)
Norman Spinrad
- Bug Jack Barron
- The Earl of Insect Cider — (John M. Gamble)
- The Void Captain’s Tale
- The Negated Officer’s Rear — (John M. Gamble)
- Vacuum the Tale of the Captain — (Babelfish,
English/French/English)
- The Diamond Age
- Dating Diamonds — (Jo Walton)
- Snow Crash
- Avalanche — (Danny Sichel)
- A Wreck Caused by the Snow — (Lance Purple)
- Cocaine Overdose — (Ernest Tomlinson)
Sheri S. Tepper
- Gibbon’s Decline and Fall
- Ape’s Autumn Refusal — (Zara Bee)
- The Family Tree
- Raising the Stones
- Grave Robbing — (Thomas Yan)
- Grass
- Marijuana — (Thomas Yan)
- Turf — (Zara Bee)
James Tiptree, Jr.
- Houston, Houston, Do You Read?
- Literate Texas Cities — (John M. Gamble)
- Lord of the Rings
- Master Campanologist — (Joe Slater)
- The Ruler of the Jewelry — (Euan Troup)
- Lord of the Loops — (Babelfish, English/French/English)
Jules Verne
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
- 20,000 Underwater Professional Sport Associations —
(Keith Morrison)
- The Peace War
- War and Peace — (Jo Walton)
- Marooned in Real Time
- When Everyone Turned Purple — (Jo Walton)
- A Fire Upon the Deep
- A Stove on the Water — (Joe Slater)
Lawrence Watt-Evans
- With a Single Spell
- Universal Orthography — (Danny Sichel)
Walter Jon Williams
- City on Fire
- Look out! The city is burning! — (Joe Slater)
- To Say Nothing of the Dog
- Let Us Not Talk About the Dog — (Joe Slater)
- Don’t Mention the Dog — (Jo Walton)
- Time Travellers in Victorian England — (Andrew Plotkin)
Roger Zelazny
- The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth
- His Eyes are Open, and His Teeth Glow In the Dark —
(Brenda W. Clough)
- Nine Princes in Amber
- 9 Royal Siblings Preserved in Tree Sap — (Thomas Yan)
- No Royalty is Well-Preserved (must have been the German
translation) — (Andrew Plotkin)
- Last Nine Amber Princes — (Babelfish,
English/French/English)