While the following does not quite fit the criteria for my “word-for-word” (mis)translations, I thought it such vividly morbid stream-of-consciousness that I dug it up from the archives.
On the eve of Halloween, I asked my writing class to frighten me with a descriptive paragraph about a haunted house. After reading out the submissions by flashlight in a darkened classroom, I couldn’t help but copy a portion of one of them. To create the desired effect of spoken-word poetry, please read aloud, in rhythm, and in one long breath (maybe turn the lights out too):
The haunted house is empty and scary on top of the hill broken windows and screams and evil laughter and ghost and skeleton is die people.
(The lack of punctuation should not reflect negatively on my ability, or lack thereof, to instill basic grammatical rules in my students.)
An abandoned house in the foothills of Volcán Barú, Boquete, Panama
- photo by Geoff Martin
An abandoned house in the foothills of Volcán Barú, Boquete, Panama