Spent yesterday on a freaking long walk through Chiang Mai that took me along the river Ping to Waroot Market where I wandered through random stalls and shops. Went through a huge display of hair clips and found myself in what appeared to be some kind of beauty store that for no good reason had a bunch of plastic wallets made from anime comics on a shelf including a stack made from one of my all time favorites "Spirited Away". The nextdoor shop sold everything from Ovaltine to school supplies and I indulged in one of my favorite shopping experiences in SE Asia, reading the copy on notebooks. I don't know who comes up with this stuff, maybe someone somewhere just drops a block of text into a translating tool, but it's amazing, sometimes it's bizarre translations of lyrics or just news copy that has nothing to do with anything and sometimes it's pithy truisms that read like Buddhist koans and have nothing to do with anything.
Some of my favorites from yesterday.
"Whenever I have any problems they come and stand beside be"
"Welcome to the lovely rabbit world you'll happy and sweet with me"
"have your wine salted"
"Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim of human existence"
"Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun in the firmament. Life and Power are scattered with all it's beams"
"love is blind and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that they themselves commit"
"Bad things have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss."
" 'I want to eat the best local food.' I'd like to place an order."
Monday, December 22, 2008
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