translation-files/skills/dharma-translation/SKILL.md

name, description, category

name	description	category
dharma-translation	Translate Chinese↔English Buddhist/Dharma content using the MPI term database and Mindfulness Bell corpus for register guidance.	research

Dharma Translation

When translating Chinese↔English Buddhist/Dharma content, consult TWO resources before producing output:

1. Terms database — for established term translations
2. Mindfulness Bell corpus — for register/style patterns in English Buddhist prose

Resources

Terms DB

• DB: /home/user/documents/mpi/terms-search/termlib.duckdb
• CLI: /home/user/documents/mpi/terms-search/search.py <query>
• Source tables priority: DoT定稿 > 内部特色词 > 佛教术语 > 经论名
• See terms-search skill (via skill_view) or AGENTS.md for full usage

Mindfulness Bell Corpus

• Location: /home/user/meta/www.files/public/The Mindfulness Bell/
• 6 issues: MB92–MB97 (2023–2026), each ~84–116 pages
• Index: index.yaml (article titles, authors, pages)
• Articles: ~/documents/jingxin-lessons/Mindfulness Bell/articles/MB{92..97}/*.md — 93 individual markdown files with YAML frontmatter. Read directly with read_file.
• Extraction script: /tmp/extract_mb_articles.py (re-run if PDFs change)

Register Reference (from MB corpus analysis)

Four registers observed, useful as style targets:

Register	Example	Key features
Dharma talk	Thầy (MB94 "Roses and Garbage", MB97 "Go as a River")	Short sentences, concrete images, coined terms ("interbeing"), oral address ("It's clear?"), Sanskrit kept with narrative explanation
Teaching lineage	Sister Đoan Nghiêm (MB93 "Our Patriarch Liễu Quán")	"We" voice, terms explained, cultural bridging ("like Jesus"), dates woven into narrative, still oral
Personal narrative	Mick McEvoy (MB94 "Touching the True Nature")	First-person, confessional, borrowed Dharma vocabulary, emotional directness, vernacular
Editorial	Brother Pháp Lưu (MB94 welcome letter)	Polished but warm, conceptual framing, "we" address

Translation Principles (observed from MB corpus)

1. Terms: Either keep Sanskrit w/ narrative explanation (bodhisattva, Māra) OR coin new English (interbeing, inter-are). Avoid clunky calques.
2. Cultural bridging: Add bridges for Western readers. A Chinese text mentioning 孔子 can stay; explain the function. Đoan Nghiêm's "like Jesus" is the pattern.
3. Tone: Chinese Dharma texts are typically more formal than English equivalents. Decide consciously: keep formality or warm up (Thầy style).
4. Voice: Direct address ("you"), concrete images, and oral rhythm make Dharma land in English. Abstract noun chains (common in Chinese→English translationese) kill it.
5. Sutra quotes: Use standard English Buddhist idiom. Check terse-idiom conventions (e.g., Diamond Sutra "lives" not "bodies").

Workflow

1. Load both terms-search and dharma-translation skills (and mpi-project-conventions for output conventions)
2. Search terms DB FIRST — before producing any output. Use the CLI: /home/user/documents/mpi/terms-search/search.py <query>. Query every key Buddhist/MPI term in the source. Prefer DoT定稿 > 内部特色词 > 佛教术语 > 经论名. Pitfall: skipping this step and translating from general knowledge produces incorrect terms that must be patched later.
3. For register decisions: consult the register table above (scanning MB articles is optional)
4. Translate directly — never call external translation APIs. Agent IS the model.
5. Write target.dj alongside source.dj. Match source line count exactly.
6. TOC: strip link targets, render as bullet list (- I. ...). No [text](#anchor) markup — those are pandoc artifacts. The target is a standalone document.
7. Em-dash convention: AGENTS.md mandates — (Unicode em-dash) → --- (three hyphens) in English djot. When drafting, type --- for em-dashes, not —. The Chinese source often uses ------ (six hyphens) as its em-dash equivalent — translate to ---, never to —. Before declaring done, run a sanity check: grep -c '—' target.dj should be 0.
8. After translation, offer to align against the terms DB for verification

Sanskrit Italicization\n\nSanskrit/foreign loan words must be italicized on first occurrence in the body text. Use *term* (djot emphasis). This applies to all non-English Buddhist terms:\n\n- Common: bodhisattva, bodhicitta, samsara, karma, nirvana, Sangha, sutra, Dharma\n- Less common: Mahayana, Sravaka, Vinaya, Lamrim, Ksitigarbha, Samantabhadra, Chan, Arhatship, Theravada\n\nDo NOT italicize subsequent occurrences of the same term. Track which terms have been italicized as you process the body. Only italicize in the running body text, not in TOC, headings, or title lines.\n\nPitfall: some terms like "karma" and "Dharma" are common enough in English Buddhist\npublishing to appear unitalicized. Follow the convention of the target publication;\nwhen in doubt, italicize on first use.\n\n## Diacritics Convention

Follow the terms DB, not academic Sanskrit. See references/diacritics-convention.md for the full rule table. Summary:

• No diacritics: Mahasthamaprapta, Yogacarabhumi-Sastra (matches 佛教术语 / 经论名)
• With diacritics: Kṣitigarbha (DoT定稿 uses this form)

When in doubt, search the DB and use whatever form appears in the highest-priority source.

Bilingual Output

After target.dj is finalized, create bilingual.dj: interleave source and target, one line at a time. Format:

source line

target line

source line

target line

Use Python: terminal("cat") on both files, split on newlines, zip and interleave.

DOCX Output

.docx files go to /tmp/ — never commit binaries. Use scripts/dj2docx.fish:

fish scripts/dj2docx.fish path/to/target.dj

Pandoc auto-converts --- → em dash, -- → en dash in docx.

MB Article Quick-Find

Common article types to search for register examples:

• Thầy's Dharma talks: search index for "Thích Nhất Hạnh" + page ≤ 10
• Sister/brother teachings: search for "Sister" or "Brother" + "DHARMA TEACHING"
• Personal narratives: first-person voice, often pages 8–60
• Lineage/history: "Patriarch," "ancestor," dates in text