The coolest thing here is the Emoji to English translation, IMO, which builds grammatically-correct sentences from an unlimited number of emojis. Translating english -> emoji -> english makes for some interesting mistranslations.
It's good enough that I'm wondering whether they're drawing off recent english->emoji translations to reverse emojis back to the source material.
Example of Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-Tale Heart:
English:
>True! — nervous — very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses — not destroyed — not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily — how calmly I can tell you the whole story.
(Emoji doesn't display properly on HN or I'd quote it here, but it's encoded into the URL here [1])
Translating the emoji back to english:
>True! — nervous — very , very afraid of a sudden I have; but why will you say that I'm grumpy? crisis has made my senses — not destroyed — not dulled them . Above all the sense of ear acupuncture . I heard all things in heaven and earth . I heard many things in heck . The question , then , I'm grumpy? please! and understand how to consume — how calmly I can tell you the whole story .
So... it started out with Hello world. Ok. That made me think of the Hilltop Singers and the amusements of things like "Sprit in the sky" becoming "whisky in the heavens" when translated to Spanish and back.
Yeah. “Its lit” gets translated into :hand_pointing_right::flashlight: rather than :fire:, which is actually pretty funny, and it translates :fax::person_gesturing_no::printer: to fax no printer, which is technically correct, but it would be way cooler if it translated it to something traditional like “thats a fact!”.
One of the problems with translating emoji is that their are some combinations that are references to memes, it utterly fails at translating :raised hand: :ice cream: :hand pointing right: :broccoli: (giving “hand cream this asparagus”, lol) a combination that would (very) roughly translate to someone not familiar with the drake meme to something along the lines of “I’m not about sweets/junk food, I’m about eating clean”.
Seems like a really good idea, but likely a tough problem especially because I expect emoji usage to continue to evolve rapidly.
It's good enough that I'm wondering whether they're drawing off recent english->emoji translations to reverse emojis back to the source material.
Example of Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-Tale Heart:
English:
>True! — nervous — very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses — not destroyed — not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily — how calmly I can tell you the whole story.
(Emoji doesn't display properly on HN or I'd quote it here, but it's encoded into the URL here [1])
Translating the emoji back to english:
>True! — nervous — very , very afraid of a sudden I have; but why will you say that I'm grumpy? crisis has made my senses — not destroyed — not dulled them . Above all the sense of ear acupuncture . I heard all things in heaven and earth . I heard many things in heck . The question , then , I'm grumpy? please! and understand how to consume — how calmly I can tell you the whole story .
[1] https://translate.yandex.com/?lang=emj-en&text=%E2%9D%8C%20%....