Salt Pepper Vinegar

Am I able to explain what you lack,
when all you can perceive is total black?
Missing a world with multiples of hue,
never a look at skies of clearest blue.

Am I capable to set you the scene,
of fields stretching away, full of green;
and how many countless a tear is shed
upon receiving those roses of red.

But, we are only just a mere human,
as no-one can really describe cyan.
Let alone that odd magenta fellow
and nothing is just, primary yellow.

Every colour is contained in white,
when you are able to behold the light.

 

A silly experiment to show how automatic translation can lose as much meaning as a human can make with a rubbish grasp of a different language.

Voyelles

A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu: voyelles,
Je dirai quelque jour vos naissances latentes:
A, noir corset velu des mouches éclatantes
Qui bombinent autour des puanteurs cruelles,

Golfes d’ombre; E, candeurs des vapeurs et des tentes,
Lances des glaciers fiers, rois blancs, frissons d’ombelles;
I, pourpres, sang craché, rire des lèvres belles
Dans la colère ou les ivresses pénitentes;

U, cycles, houles divins des mers virides,
Paix des pâtis semés d’animaux, paix des rides
Que l’alchimie imprime aux grands fronts studieux;

O, suprême Clairon plein des strideurs étranges,
Silences traversés des [Mondes et des Anges]:
—O l’Oméga, rayon violet de [Ses] Yeux!

---

Using Google Translate to change the poem from French to English:

Vowels

A black, E white, I red, U green, O blue: vowels,
I will some day your mysterious origins:
A, black velvety jacket of brilliant flies
Which buzz around cruel smells,

Gulfs of shadow; E, whiteness of vapors and tents,
Lances of proud glaciers, white kings, shivers of umbels;
I, purples, spat blood, smile of beautiful lips
In anger or in the raptures of penitence;

U, cycles, divine shudderings of viridian seas,
Peace of pastures dotted with animals, Peace wrinkles
That alchemy prints on broad studious foreheads;

O, supreme Trumpet full of strange piercing sounds,
Silences crossed by [Worlds and Angels] O the Omega, violet ray of [His] eyes!

---

Now Google Translated to the following sequence: French > German > Russian > Urdu > Spanish > Yiddish > Irish > Mongolian > Icelandic > Thai > Persian > Dutch > Tamil > Corsican > French > English

AT

Black and white fly, red, green and blue T O: swimming.
The origin of the “mysterious origins.
B. Turn the silk jacket
Again, under intense flavor.

Like a shadow, electricity, ships and the surrounding white tent.
Re Lanza white burst, but not heat.
Moon, lips smile spitting blood.
Increases anger or stress.

You, God cycles viridyan
Rides, peace flooding animal.
Pre-printed with a magical power;

Oh, the sound of French drill pipe.
Pacific Life Christian Angels.
Oh Omega purple eyes [it]!

 

Moral: Never trust no-one!

Travelling with the family,
mum, dad and three brothers.
Everything recalled dreamily,
in my timeless summers.

Pale sands, drift to a water’s edge
where, around ancient groins,
scalloped pools of clear water held
crustaceans for your toils.

Scuffing through estuary surf,
awed by giant concrete-
block remains, where those ascents were
denied chance to succeed.

Creating a fortress in sand
just for a day – until,
my action-men were left by chance,
deeply buried within.

A Sunday Market was a maze,
where traders did compete.
Finally we would leave this place,
since it was time to sleep.

secreted away	–	miniature grains
waiting waiting	–	desire prey
giants pass	–	detect vibrations
infrared sense	–	heat draws
slumbering darkness	–	eases transfer
navigate pelage	–	choose locale
epipharynx needle	–	punctures epidermis
pump serum	–	gaining nourishment
spit returns	–	passing disease
unstoppable gorging	–	excess spills
sated finally	–	spawn generations
upon discovery	–	instant reaction
sclerite exoskeleton	–	iron hard
immense legs	–	resilin primed
spring far	–	flee environ
become dust	–	secreted away