SOME TIME AGO, Dr. Boli published this touching lyric:

Take the Yashmak Off Your Head

From “Songs Without Words” by Leonid Alexeevich Bluski.

Take the yashmak off your head,
Fry it up with onions;
Mash it up with moldy bread
And rub it on your bunions.

Ah, yashmak,
Eh, yashmak,
Ee, yashmak,
Oh, yashmak,
Ooh, yashmak:
Take the yashmak off your head.

Take the yashmak off your head,
Cover it with mustard;
Beat it till the mix turns red
And serve it up like custard.

Ah, yashmak,
Eh, yashmak,
Ee, yashmak,
Oh, yashmak,
Ooh, yashmak:
Take the yashmak off your head.

–

Yesterday, Dr. Boli’s electronic spies (for you must know that Dr. Boli has spies everywhere, which is one of the regrettable necessities of running an international publishing empire) informed him that some unnamed reader had used Google Germany’s translation service to translate this beautiful song into Chinese. Dr. Boli, whose curiosity has served him well over the past two centuries, found himself wondering what the song meant to a Chinese reader in Germany. He therefore had the same translation service translate the Chinese version back into English. These were the results:

You take the veil off his head

From “The Book of Songs without Words” of Leonid Alexeevich Bluski.

You take the veil off his head,
Fry it with the onion;
Mash it with moldy bread
Moreton in your bunions.
Ah, the veil,
Electronic Engineering Times, the veil,
Oh, veil,
Outdoors, the veil:
You take the veil off his head.

You take the veil off his head,
Cover with mustard gas;
Overcome it, until the mixture turns red
And it is like cake.
Ah, the veil,
Electronic Engineering Times, the veil,
Oh, veil,
Outdoors, the veil:
You take the veil off his head.