Thanks to A. B. Swinborne over at Story Anchor for inspiring me to create this post, and thanks to Google Translate for doing such a terrible, terrible job at translating my poem.
I took my free verse poem, The Goose Girl and fed it to Google Translate, first translating it into Dutch, then into German, Hawaiian, Portuguese, and then back into English. If you haven't already, I would recommend reading my original version of The Goose Girl before you scroll down to see Google's version below.
Drum roll, please..........
The Goose Girl (Google Translate's Version)
horn! horn!
Rain or shine, goose girl
free your furry friends from the cage
and took him to the green forest.
Use a long stick to direct them
on the busy road and
interior.
The girl jumped barefoot and cried
A goose, a goose!
He is in the forest
grass curled between your toes
thick, soft, green...
--so good. Geese are breeders, you know?
shouted the goose girl.
It's fun, you know.
a lament of "life is good",
a sweet cry,
a cry of joy,
a sigh between your toes
and there is a kind of mourning that the sun will put on my face.
You know?
horn! horn!
The geese want to move now, you know?
The grass is green, the grass is beautiful...
-but the geese are thirsty now.
the goose girl follows her goose
down the cliff to the river.
clean water, dirty clothes.
good soil, you know.
moist soil,
slippery ground,
Good soil for interesting beaks,
worm in the mud,
black and white, skin color,
Good soil, you know.
horn! horn!
The punches are ready to dive.
Splash, splash.
Fifteen punches of dust
wash clean.
the water is not clear.
horn! horn!
Here you will find the goose girl
Rain or shine, that's where she lives.
Here you will see geese,
Rain or shine, that's where they live.
Girl, geese, dirt, water, grass, cool.
It's here, you know.
horn! horn!
If you liked this post and would like to see more hilarious failed translations of poetry, please like this post (and, if you wish, share it with your friends.) If it gets enough views, I may just create similar content in the future.