It are a pome!

[theweaselking]

>> ! * ‘ ‘ #
^ ” ` $ $ -
! * = @ $ _
% * < > ~ # 4
& [ ] . . /
| { , , SYSTEM HALTED

====================

This is very, very, VERY old. And it has a translation, when spoken aloud:

Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

Comments

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Depends whether you're putting stuff through it or using it as ASCII-art.

(Same as why "#" is "hash" in the first line and "number" in the fourth - context!)