Ok, as promised, here we go. Original instructions copied from Jude's post on B77:
This is how to play - run your chosen quote through the translation party, and post the result. The person who can identify the original quote wins, and posts the next question.
If the result is so far from the original that you doubt anyone will get it, you can choose to post some of the intervening translations as well.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
The translation party (at translationparty.com) takes a phrase you enter, and then translates it into Japanese, then back into English, and so on. When it reaches the same English translation twice in a row, it is considered to "reach equilibrium" and stops.
Often, the meaning of the phrase is so changed as to be almost unrecognizable - in those cases you need to look for a couple of key words.
Here's my guess for Alatar's quote: "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Not that I'll actually play this game (don't know Tolkien well enough) but just FYI - I tried several phrases on that site and keep getting the error "problem with Bing, probably over limit". Got it in Firefox and IE.
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
I got that problem a few times last night - I just waited a few minutes and the problem went away. I think it just means the site is temporarily overloaded.
I love what the Translation Party made of my new quote:
Having just reread Harry Potter, the capitalized B in Black immediately makes me think of Sirius Black, which is blocking my ability to think of anything else.
I don't think I will be very good at this game. But I'll keep trying!
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
Thanks for clarifying! Maybe I'll take a spin at it when I finish today's work. I think I've got a good one in mind.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
I don't know why you would say that! (Seriously, I don't know how we missed that one.)
And if that is truly the answer then I don't think I will ever get any right in this game. That is a bridge too far for me.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."