translation-files/skills/translation/SKILL.md

name, description

name	description
translation	Translate Chinese↔English Buddhist/Dharma content — register guidance from Mindfulness Bell corpus, tone, voice, cultural bridging technique.

Translation

Core translation technique for Buddhist/Dharma content. Conventions (djot format, terms DB query, workflows, output format) are in AGENTS.md.

Mindfulness Bell Corpus

Register/style patterns in English Buddhist prose.

• 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

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

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").

Pitfalls

1:1 line mapping

Each physical source line maps to exactly one physical target line. Never merge continuation lines (lines ending with soft breaks) into a single translation entry. The bilingual format preserves the original line structure — breaking this destroys alignment.

Blank lines in bilingual

When creating an initial bilingual template from source only: blank source lines pass through as-is. Only non-blank lines get an empty target placeholder. Treating blank lines as content lines (adding target+separator) creates excessive blank clusters. See references/bilingual-format.md.

Soft break markers

Trailing (two spaces) on source lines indicate soft line breaks (paragraph continuations). Preserve these markers on both source and target lines.

Practice element lists: use noun forms

When translating lists of Buddhist practice elements — especially the five essentials (皈依、发心、戒律、正见、止观) or similar enumerated components — render each as a noun phrase, not a gerund. "Refuge, aspiration, precepts, right view, śamatha-vipaśyanā" — not "taking refuge, arousing aspiration." These are named components of a system, not actions being described. The same applies to any catalog-style listing (三学, 八正道 components, etc.).

Terminology decisions: user is the source of truth

When the user proposes a non-standard rendering (e.g. "人间佛教 should be 'Buddhism for daily lives'") or asks for your input ("although I don't know what X should be"), respond with a brief options table — strengths and weaknesses — and let them choose. Do NOT unilaterally commit to a rendering and start applying it across the file. The user often has a reason for their proposal (e.g. deliberate departure from terms DB convention) or a strong opinion they haven't voiced yet. Once they pick, then apply consistently and annotate in the inline {% %} comment WHY this rendering was chosen so future editors know it was deliberate, not a slip.

Quick-Find in MB Corpus

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

Meditation / Mindfulness Content

When translating guided meditation scripts, exercise guides, or posture instructions (rather than Dharma talks), use a lighter workflow. See references/meditation-translation.md.

References

• references/meditation-translation.md — lighter workflow for meditation/mindfulness content
• references/markdown-to-djot.md — converting .docx.md to .dj for translation prep
• references/bilingual-format.md — bilingual.dj layout: source/target adjacent, blank separator between pairs
• references/diacritics-convention.md — diacritics rules