It's good enough that I'm wondering whether they're drawing off recent english->emoji translations to reverse emojis back to the source material.
Example of Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-Tale Heart:
English:
>True! — nervous — very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses — not destroyed — not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily — how calmly I can tell you the whole story.
(Emoji doesn't display properly on HN or I'd quote it here, but it's encoded into the URL here [1])
Translating the emoji back to english:
>True! — nervous — very , very afraid of a sudden I have; but why will you say that I'm grumpy? crisis has made my senses — not destroyed — not dulled them . Above all the sense of ear acupuncture . I heard all things in heaven and earth . I heard many things in heck . The question , then , I'm grumpy? please! and understand how to consume — how calmly I can tell you the whole story .
[1] https://translate.yandex.com/?lang=emj-en&text=%E2%9D%8C%20%....
Once upon a night of despair, while I was thinking, weak and weary,
Over the many compelling and curious volume of forgotten tales —
While I nodded, nearly asleep, suddenly there came a tap, Only a weak resume, write my chamber door.
"'Tis the information," I muttered, " tapping my chamber door — Only this and nothing more .”
So... on a random "lets see what it does"...
I want to give the world a hug -- https://translate.yandex.com/?lang=en-emj&text=I%20want%20to...
to which it appears to redirect to https://translate.yandex.com/?lang=en-emj&text=I%20want%20to... for some reason... and I get it ending with a rhinoceros.
If you watch, you can see it briefly have a hug emoji... before replacing it with the rhinoceros.
One of the problems with translating emoji is that their are some combinations that are references to memes, it utterly fails at translating :raised hand: :ice cream: :hand pointing right: :broccoli: (giving “hand cream this asparagus”, lol) a combination that would (very) roughly translate to someone not familiar with the drake meme to something along the lines of “I’m not about sweets/junk food, I’m about eating clean”.
Seems like a really good idea, but likely a tough problem especially because I expect emoji usage to continue to evolve rapidly.
Seriously ... https://translate.yandex.com/?lang=emj-en&text=%F0%9F%91%89%....
this thing is already 4-5 years old at this point
https://translate.yandex.com/?lang=en-emj&text=communism%20r...
