"It there was one time here an individual known under the name of Jim Smiley; it was in the winter '49, possibly well at the spring of '50, I no me recollect not exactly. This which me makes to believe that it was the one or the other, it is that I shall remember that the grand flume is not achieved when he arrives at the camp for the first time, but of all sides he was the man the most fond of to bet which one have seen, betting upon all that which is presented, when he could find an adversary; and when he not of it could not, he passed to the side opposed."

So begins this delightful story by Mark Twain. It is enjoyable in it's own right, but the complete title of this book puts its larger source of humor in better words than I could: The Jumping Frog: In English, then in French, then clawed back into civilized language once more by patient unremunerated toil.

The original story (simply The Jumping Frog, in its original English form) is a short piece about two men who bet on their frogs in a jumping competition, and the trick one of the men pulls on the other to win the bet. The style is typical of Twain, with plenty of colorful slang: for example, when speaking of one of the frogs for the competition one of the men exclaims "why, blame my cats if he don't weigh five pound!"

The story was translated for publication in a French periodical, and as may be expected with such colloquial writing as Twain used, much of the color and style was lost in the process. The quote above, for example, was translated into "le loupe me croque, s'il ne pèse pas cinq livres" ("the wolf bite me if he doesn't weight five pounds").

The French received the Jumping Frog poorly on account of the bad translation and, accordingly, Twain was outraged at the poor translation his work received. In response, he retranslated the piece back into English from the French, deliberately translating each word directly and thus each sentence poorly to make his point. The retranslation is filled with criticism.

"'Eh bien! I no saw not that that frog had nothing of better than each frog." (Je ne vois pas que cette grenouille ait rien de mieux qu'aucune grenouille.) [If that isn't grammar gone to seed, than I count myself no judge.-M.T.]

When completed, Twain's retranslated work hardly resembles the original story. "Le loupe me croque, s'il ne pèse pas cinq livres" became rendered "the wolf me bite if he no weigh not five pounds."

As a stand alone short story, The Jumping Frog is a fun read, but is even better with the translations that follow.

Yet Twain is not simply punitive. Through mistranslation of mistranslation, the humor is not lost, and Twain justifies himself to his reviewers: his ability to make things humorous lies not in his beautiful language, but in the situation he creates - whether that situation is fictional (the story of the jumping frog) or non-fictional (his own drama of being shunned by the French reviewers on account of a bad translation).

'Possible that you not it saw not,' said Smiley, 'possible that you - you comprehend frogs; possible that you not you there comprehend nothing; possible that you had of the experience, and possible that you not be but an amateur. Of all manner (De toute manière) I bet forty dollars that she batter in jumping no matter which frog of the county of Calaveras."

The individual reflected a second and said like sad:

'I not am but a stranger here, I no have not a frog; but if I of it had one, I would embrace the bet.'

'Strong well!' responded Smiley; 'nothing of more facility. If you will hold my box a minute I go you to search a frog (j'irai vous chercher).

The reader, despite mistranslations, is able to then learn the important lesson of why you should not entrust your jumping frog to the gentleman you are about to bet with, and learn that the genius of Mark Twain is his ability to tell a story - in any language (or with no language at all!).