Show HN: Lost in translations – a fun app of recursive translations

&quot;My hovercraft is full of eels&quot; <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lost-in-translations.amanjeev.com&#x2F;lost-translations&#x2F;277" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lost-in-translations.amanjeev.com&#x2F;lost-translations&#x2F;2...</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Dirty_Hungarian_Phrasebook" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Dirty_Hungarian_Phrasebook</a> &amp; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=G6D1YI-41ao" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=G6D1YI-41ao</a>

Note: It seems like I am about to run out of the free quota (I see the usage as 754K characters already). I grossly underestimated.<p>Edit: If I run out of the quota, which it looks like I will, you can use your own API key locally by using this package: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pypi.python.org&#x2F;pypi&#x2F;ulit&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pypi.python.org&#x2F;pypi&#x2F;ulit&#x2F;</a>. A neat feature is that you can use Google translate API as well but it is not nearly as much fun.<p>Update: I ran out of the quota but have emailed Yandex if I can pay a few bucks to keep it running. It seems to have under 50 mil characters, you pay about $15.

Same problem as <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;translationparty.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;translationparty.com&#x2F;</a>, running out of API quota. Sad since it&#x27;s a funny idea.<p>Here&#x27;s how Translation Party is supposed to work: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com&#x2F;2009&#x2F;08&#x2F;forcebewithyou-1.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com&#x2F;2009&#x2F;08&#x2F;forcebe...</a> (similar to Lost in translations).

I tried some popular quotes, there is an example: &quot;Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.&quot; was transformed to: Every time you log on to the website of the Majority, it is Time to stop and think.

Seems like an entertaining, tech-enhanced, multi-lingual, solitary version of telephone [1].<p>FWIW: &quot;The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog&quot; becomes &quot;In veloce Marrone volpe Pull lazy cane&quot; [2]<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Chinese_whispers" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Chinese_whispers</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lost-in-translations.amanjeev.com&#x2F;lost-translations&#x2F;1246" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lost-in-translations.amanjeev.com&#x2F;lost-translations&#x2F;1...</a>

The following goes through and comes out the end unchanged:<p>&quot;We are all Human beings. The Earth is our home. It is our World. We have to learn to share, before it&#x27;s too late.&quot;

Using text: &quot;Hello, i&#x27;m trying out this translation madness, I&#x27;m hoping these text won&#x27;t lost.&quot;<p>Afterwards, it has corrected my grammar: Good Day, I am trying this translation Madness, I hope that these Texts will not lose.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lost-in-translations.amanjeev.com&#x2F;lost-translations&#x2F;788" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lost-in-translations.amanjeev.com&#x2F;lost-translations&#x2F;7...</a>

That&#x27;s pretty cool :)<p>Maybe you could spin the waiting time by showing the intermediary translations as they go?

That&#x27;s funny, I wrote a hubot script that does something similar a little while ago:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;okize&#x2F;hubot-garble" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;okize&#x2F;hubot-garble</a>

Reminds me of <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ackuna.com&#x2F;badtranslator" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ackuna.com&#x2F;badtranslator</a> which was way better back when you could still use Bing and Google Translate.

I think this could use some non-Indo-European languages in the language chain for fun.<p>Also, looks like all past translations are available through URL modification:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lost-in-translations.amanjeev.com&#x2F;lost-translations&#x2F;1000" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lost-in-translations.amanjeev.com&#x2F;lost-translations&#x2F;1...</a><p>by changing 1000 to 999, 1001, etc.

I managed to get &quot;Sorry, language not supported by Yandex&quot; error somehow. Is the app hitting to the API limits?

Question: Would anyone be interested in the translations (as a plain-text dump) ?

Isn&#x27;t this more about repeated iterations than recursive calls to itself?