Je demande pardon aux enfants d'avoir dédié ce livre à une grande personne. J'ai une excuse sérieuse : cette grande personne est le meilleur ami que j'ai au monde. J'ai une autre excuse : cette grande personne peut tout comprendre, même les livres pour enfants. J'ai une troisième excuse : cette grande personne habite la France où elle a faim et froid. Elle a besoin d'être consolée. Si toutes ces excuses ne suffisent pas, je veux bien dédier ce livre à l'enfant qu'a été autrefois cette grande personne. Toutes les grandes personnes ont d'abord été des enfants. (Mais peu d'entre elles s'en souviennent.) Je corrige donc ma dédicace :
Google:
I ask forgiveness for children to have dedicated this book to a great person. I have a serious reason: this grown-up is the best friend I have in the world. I have another excuse: this grown-up understands everything, even books for children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where she is hungry and cold. It needs to be comforted. If all these excuses are not enough, I want to dedicate this book to the child whom this grown-up. All adults were first children. (But few of them remember it.) I correct my dedication:
This wasn't too bad . . . it screwed up a preposition, few pronouns, and left off a piece of the fourth to last sentence. But this is a very simple text (the dedication from The Little Prince).
German dedication:
Ich bitte die Kinder um Verzeihung, daß ich dieses Buch einem Erwachsenen widme. Ich habe eine ernstliche Entschuldigung dafür: Dieser Erwachsene ist der beste Freund, den ich in der Welt habe. Ich habe noch eine Entschuldigung: Dieser Erwachsene kann alles verstehen, sogar die Bücher für Kinder. Ich habe eine dritte Entschuldigung: Dieser Erwachsene wohnt in Frankreich, wo er hungert und friert. Er braucht sehr notwendig einen Trost. Wenn alle diese Entschuldigungen nicht ausreichen, so will ich dieses Buch dem Kinde widmen, das dieser Erwachsene einst war. Alle großen Leute sind einmal Kinder gewesen (aber wenige erinnern sich daran). Ich verbessere also meine Widmung:
Google:
I ask the children about forgiveness, that I dedicate this book to an adult. I have a serious reason: That he is the best friend I have in the world. I have another reason: this grown-up understands everything, even books for children. I have a third reason: It lives in France, where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all of these reasons are not enough, so I want to dedicate this book to the child whom this grown-up grew. All grown-ups were once children (but few remember it). So I correct my dedication:
A little rougher in the opening. It should say something like: "I beg the children's pardon that I am dedicating this book to a grownup." I suspect this translation made use of English for this well known book that's already on the web, since the sentences after the opening are almost identical to the translation of the french, and neither of them is very literal. For example, neither "excuse" in french or "Entschuldigung" in german means "reason;" it should be "excuse," as in an explanation that lets you off the hook. So -- for a known text, it seems Google has a better chance; for an original text that has just been created, maybe not good at all. Eh bien -- it plagiarizes about as efficiently as the majority of my students.
I think part of the problem is that you can't teach a program these human linguistic things like metaphor and humor, and even giving it a lexicon for idiom is very, very time consuming. This one from The Little Prince stuck very close to the words that appear in some form in both languages and did OK, but it got flummoxed even around the little connnecting words. Idiom is hard, and figurative language is never going to be possible.