leading to the apocryphal story of the Biblical, ‘the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’ being translated to ‘the vodka is agreeable, but the meat is spoiled.’
Not long ago, Google translate was still doing the translation that way. It's since been fixed, probably by using a special case.
Still does for some languages. Just last week I was looking for the lyrics to "I'm a Little Teapot" in Japanese, and the translate suggestion was watashi wa sukoshi tiipotto desu: "I am slightly teapot."
(As to the search, it seems that unlike many nursery rhymes, I'm a Little Teapot has not been imported.)
This is even worse when translating to another language than English because it use English as a pivot thus adding another layer of errors.
I noticed it first when translating to French a sentence and a Japanese word meaning 'to book (an hotel)' was translated as a word meaning a book (livre).
Not long ago, Google translate was still doing the translation that way. It's since been fixed, probably by using a special case.