Lingua franca

Printed in black and white, the windblown ironwood tree against a cloudy sky reminded me a little of a Chinese ink drawing. So I called up Google Translate, asked it for a translation of "ironwood," and pasted the characters into my picture. I thought they might remind viewers of the poems that Chinese collectors used to write on the classics that fell into their hands.

 Click to enlarge.

But it turned out that my effort was nothing but body Engrish.

Do an image search for "Engrish" and you'll make all kinds of funny discoveries, such as

or

But thanks to my neighbors George and Esther Quek, I've learned that the mysterious west is just as mysterious as the mysterious east. Google's four-character translation of "ironwood" turns out to be a personified transliteration: Ian Wood.

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Population study, October 28: With this post, "The Art Part" went viral, albeit with only a low-grade infection. If you've googled "Engrish" since September 21, you've wound up here -- and people google for "Engrish" from all over the world.

So let me take commercial advantage and offer this free book about my summer's work with shape and color.

http://issuu.com/jonathan-morse/docs/light_changed_to_shape