Sunday, October 13, 2024

Comfort mask subverts imagination

As machine-translation technology improves, you don't see as much good old-fashioned Engrish as you used to. I saw this the other day, though:


It's a pretty literal translation. It says "comfort" (舒適) at the top, then a picture of a mask, and then "subvert" (顛覆) and "imagination" (想像) at the bottom.

The intended meaning, which it took me a second to get, is that these masks are more comfortable than you can possibly imagine. The word whose basic meaning is "subvert" can also be used in the sense of "defy," as in "defy understanding," "defy description," etc.

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