Without Translation
by Steve Mitchell
without translation
a clatter of birdsong
sipping my coffee
sans traduction
un bruit de chants d’oiseaux
en sirotant mon café
sin traducción
el sonido del canto de los pájaros
tomando mi café
tomando mi café
غير مترجمة
صوت عصفور
مع قهوتي
Αμεταγλώττιστος
Bird ήχου
Με τον καφέ μου
Непереведенных
Птица звука
С моим кофе
未翻译
鸟的声音
用我的咖啡
未翻訳
鳥は音
私のコーヒーと
Untranslated
Bird sounds
And my coffee
———-
a trip around the world via google translator . . . i think the final ku is better than the one I wrote!
Heed not Steve 
It always amazes me how some languages take so many words to get the point across, and others take so few. This is a visually pretty post, Steve. It looks like a bird. Maybe that was your intention. 🙂
Thanks Andra.
I deliberately formatted the post in that v-shape but I never even thought about making it look like a bird! I mean . . uhhm, yes I knew it all along!
That is the coolest thing ever.
I hate to say this but I think you’re right about the last ku being better than the first. 🙂 Going off to try this with some of my terminal wordiness now …
Thanks Melissa
You know, I deliberately made the ku kind of verbose, carefully choosing words I hoped would get mangled in translation. I was honestly hoping for ‘telephone game’ type hilarity! I guess the interwebs are too smart for me. They went and cut out all the unessential bits! But, as the one who directed the action, I’ll still take credit for the results; sort of like Jeff Koons and his puppy hedges.
Awesome Steve, I agree, last one is great. I have to try this too, it sounds kinda like the ultimate in Chinese Whispers!
Thanks Ashley! So far I’ve resisted running any of my previous haiku through the works, but I know, I’m going to have to try it. It’d kill me, though, if they all were improved by the process! 😛
[…] to Steve for this idea (his has worked much better) but the this was pretty fun. Google translator through 7 or 8 languages, each translating a […]
Hahaha! I feel the same, but I’d still claim authorship I suppose