Here's a silly one, loosely inspired by a stay in Venice.
Found in Translation
When Giovanni
Schiaperelli
gave the name canali
to those apparent
markings on Mars,
the world thought of
Venice
and found no menace
in alien life midst the
stars.
Instead of raiders
or ruthless invaders
embodying all of our
fears,
we simply imagined
in fine Venetian
fashion
a fleet of green
gondoliers.
Of course, all this
elation
was due to
mistranslation.
“Channels” was what
Giovanni said.
Just think what
linguistic confusion
would have been added
to optical illusion
if he had used the word
cannoli instead.
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