Love & Cannibalism Translated

When checking Sitemeter, I noticed that someone recently found nothing but HAT's by googling a string of Vietnamese search words that translated as: Korean wife eats husband's flesh.

So I promptly googled the equivalent in English, and the very first site that came up was about 100% foolproof Korean Dating. Never you mind whether there has been such a case as Korean wife eating husband's wife (if she whoever she is really did, I would like to know why). I write about this as another interesting albeit meaningless example of how so much is lost in translation.

How can a string of words that when clumped together suggests a heinous crime such as cannibalism (and which hints at serious relationship issues) -- how can those string of words when translated literally conjure up a site about the art of bringing people together and building relationships -- not tearing them apart.

We must think about the powerful manipulations of search engines and marvel at their usurpation of the internet, naturally, but I can't help but think, if only a little, at the disparity and contradiction between the two...

Think, then, upon what happens to ourselves when we miscommunicate. What kind of cannibalism are we committing when we misinterpret our correspondences? What kinds of relationships are we building up or tearing down (and how are we doing that!) through a mis-translation?

I shudder to think of it. But then I remember that Pen recently wrote about how her little employees have been transforming and mixing their "company logos and mottos". The creativity that they come up with are no less entertaining than educational. From the mouths of babes, right? They give me hope because they offer me a purer, more holy, more beautiful example of how goodness and wholeness can still be understood despite what is lost in translation. And love. Despite the jumbled words and miscommunications, so much love still remain.