Artificial Poetry

Sometimes I get tired of my own words. In times like that I especially crave and appreciate a collaborator coming in to alienate them for me, to misunderstand, evolve, morph and respond to the original offer I have made. I like collaborating with humans, of course, but it can be interesting to collaborate with other kinds of partners as well. 

In this poetry play exercise, you incorporate refraction and distortion of your initial meaning through translation and ai both. 

My invitation to you: take a poem or text of some kind, then run it through google translate a few times, always feeding it back into your native tongue, then running it through another translation shift, until you feel something interesting turns up. 

Collect all the lines you like from any of the shifted versions and assemble a new piece out of those lines.

Enjoy :) 

~~

Original poem: 

The new discipline
is not to collapse, under the hand of a great pressure
of the art that makes caves around holes,
and passages for roots of water to grow gushing,
and forces sand into rocks,
knots in the tissue
of the world, denser
than anything in your own strange
body.

Call on the force uncalled for
that forces the unsung transformation
of materials, that forces the unwieldy
hopeless root of rage
into some reckless version of elation.

I am calling, hear me?  

Shift 1: Hausa

The new training
will not fall, under pressure pressure
of technology making caves around the holes,
and places for the spring to grow gushing,
and forcing sand in the rocks,
knots in the meat
globally, denser
more than anything else in your missionary
body.

Unauthorized call
This is forced to change
of materials, which forced the patients
root of anger
in an important form of elation.

I call, hear me?

Shift 2: Shona

New education
it will not be able to fall, under compulsion
hollow coatings all around the holes,
and places for the fountain to grow,
and casting into the rocks,
knots in the meat
global, denser
surpass anything in your missionary life
body.

You are not allowed to be called
This is compelled to change
of things, which forced the patients
angry city
in another important way of speaking.

I call, what do I hear?

Shift 3: Haitian Creole

New education
it will not be able to collapse, forcing
paint hollow around the holes,
and places for the source to grow,
and deposited in the rocks,
knots in the flesh
global, dance
surpass anything in your missionary life
body.

You do not have the right to call
This is switching
in the things that force the patients
mad city
in another important way to talk.

I call, what do I hear?

Shift 4: Basque

New education
It is not possible to collapse, forcing
dug holes,
and places for growing fountains,
and kept in the rocks,
flesh knots
global dance
Your life to overcome any mission mission
body.

You do not have the right to call
This is changing
in things that strengthen patients
crazy city
in another important word.

I said, what do I feel?

Shift 5: Nepali

New education
It is not possible to focus
Left holes,
And places for growing sources,
And placed on the rocks,
Cornal Nodes
Global dance
Your mission to lose any mission mission
Body

You can not call
These changes
To strengthen patients
Crazy city
In another important word.

What did I feel?

Shift 6: Yoruba

New school
It is not possible to focus
The holes in the left,
And websites for source sources,
Then live on the rock,
Carnal Nodes
World dance
Your task to lose a particular job
We buy

You can not call
These changes
To make sure the patients
Happiness
In other words.

What do I have?

New Poem

It is not possible to focus
the holes in the left,
and websites for source sources,
then live on the rock.

New education. It will not be able to collapse, forcing
paint hollow around the holes,
and places for the source to grow,
deposited in the rocks,
knots in the flesh, carnal nodes. More than anything else

in your missionary body.
It will not be able to fall, under compulsion
hollow coatings all around the holes,
and places for the fountain to grow,
and casting into the rocks

You are not allowed to be called
This is compelled to change

It is not possible to collapse, forcing
dug holes,
and places for growing fountains,
and kept in the rocks

You do not have the right to call
This is changing

What did I feel? I said, what do I feel? What do I have?

Places for growing fountains, things that strengthen patients. In other words

happiness, an important form of elation.

~~

Thumbnail image reverently appropriated from Ruth Heller's The Reason for a Flower.