SuttaCentral translation style guide

A translation should aim to fully communicate the content of the root text in the target language without loss or change in meaning. Translation should be transparent; the translator should disappear. It is not about you or your ideas, but about helping the reader understand the Dhamma. Bearing these ideals in mind, we always strive to make our translations a more perfect expression of the Dhamma.

SuttaCentral encourages and supports the development of different perspectives and approaches to translation. It is not our role to edit or assess the work of any translations in detail. Nevertheless, we have a responsibility to ensure that translators working with us maintain a good standard of quality and reliability.

The purpose of a translation is to make the teachings available to people in their own language. For this reason, ensure that a translation be idiomatic and accessible. We encourage translators to read some background on the theory of translation so as to be familiar with the different approaches. You can start with Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation

When making an idiomatic translation, ask yourself, “Does this sound like something a native speaker might actually have said?” Try to avoid using unusual or Buddhist-specific terms, especially when it comes to rendering technical terms from English. Remember that the existing English translations have evolved over more than a century of work, research, and discussion, yet still have many areas needing improvement.

A translator should try to balance consistency, readability, and accuracy. Finally, they should take care of all the little details.

Consistency

Where a term, passage, or phrase appears more than once it should generally be translated the same way, unless there is a reason to change it. Person, number, and tense may all change, but in addition the force or sense of the passage might change due to context. Don’t be afraid to render differently when required, but don’t allow inconsistencies due to inattention.

Consistency helps a reader make connections between disparate passages, and it helps search engines find things.

Readability

Readability is the ease with which a reader can understand a written text.

• Simplify vocabulary.
• Use short sentences.
• Put the primary meaning of a sentence at the start, especially in the case of longer sentences, which are hard to parse by those who read word-by-word—such as many who speak English as a second language—so if the main point of the sentence is only revealed at the end, they have already forgotten the beginning; and even for those who read English natively and quickly, it is normal to scan the beginnings of sentences to grasp the basic meaning.
  • But yeah, don’t write sentences like that. Fewer than 25 words/sentence is good.
• Assume the text means something. Just because you are unclear doesn’t mean the speaker of the text was unclear. Make a choice. Overall, the Suttas are obviously designed to express meaning clearly. So avoid ambiguity or unclarity, unless the text itself is intentionally ambiguous, such as a pun or play on words.
• Avoid obscure or overly colloquial usages.
• Punctuate carefully.
• Read text aloud to see if it flows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readability

The UK government website has some excellent guidelines for readability.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/content-design/writing-for-gov-uk

I recommend using no Pali or Sanskrit words in your translation. It is a translation, translate it.

Accuracy

While there is no one correct way to translate a text, there are many incorrect ways. Not everything is a matter of opinion, and your choices must be informed by the facts. If you are not an expert in Pali or other original languages, you must defer to the opinions of experts.

Generally speaking, each generation of translators has the benefit of previous translations, so they get better over time. If you see contradictions between translations, this is often because the later translator has access to more knowledge. So avoid making an “average” of different translations. If you are unsure, ask.

Accurate does not mean literal. To paraphrase Isaac Asimov, literalness is the last resort of the incompetent. Thats not always true, of course, since there is a genuine place for literal translations. However, beware the temptation to just to make a literal rendering in lieu of true understanding.

Little details

Following are the conventions for English. Conventions for quote marks, dashes, and other things vary by language, so ensure you are using the proper conventions for your language.

• Check spelling.
• Use correct grammar.
• Use correct punctuation.
• Always use Unicode. We do not support any non-Unicode text.
• When writing Ā in Pali, make sure to use the Latin Ā not the Greek Ᾱ. They may look the same, but they are different letters.
• Always use the ellipsis Unicode character …, never three dots ...
• Ellipsis takes a space on either side.
• Use dashes correctly:
  • Hyphen joins words (station-master).
  • En-dash indicates range usually of numbers (AN 3.43–7)
  • Em-dash indicates a break in a sentence—like this.
• Dashes never take a space on either side.
• NEVER USE ALL CAPS. Use capital case as Appropriate.
  • It is trivial for apps to reliably turn Capital Case into ALL CAPS, BUT it is hard or impossible to do the reverse.
• For double and single quotations, always use “proper curly quote marks” as appropriate for your language, not "straight quotes".
• One space after period.
• Never use double spaces anywhere.
• Never input newlines or no-break spaces.
• No space before .?!:; (with the exception for languages such as French)
• Never use [square brackets] (except for links).
• Never use {curly brackets}
• Use the Oxford comma.
• Use proper conventions for capitalization for names.
• Bilara supports simple markdown
  • _underscore_ indicates a quoted word in another language, typically Pali.
  • *asterisk* indicates emphasis (italics).
  • **double asterisk** indicates strong emphasis (You probably don’t want to use this.)
  • Read this carefully for link syntax, especially in comments.
• Never include any artefacts in your translation such as line breaks, Word or other document formatting, HTML, or anything else. Just the text.

Comments

Bilara provides a comment field, where you can make notes on translations. These are entirely optional, there is no need to add comments.

You are responsible for your comments, and can choose to add them or not. Different comments are useful in different contexts, so while you may adapt other comments, don’t do so unthinkingly. Also, attribute them rather than making a direct translation. For example, say:

Bhikkhu Sujato notes that …

You can easily add simple inline styles, cross references, and links to comments, see the guide to nilakkhana.

As to the style of comments: a comment aims to help the reader understand the text or translation.

Do not

• ⚠️ Do not use comments to expound your theories of Dhamma! We are not offering you a personal platform for expression! That is what Discourse is for!
• ⚠️ Do not promote other translators/scholars, or aggregate opinions. There are lots of opinions about the Dhamma, this is not the place for them.
• ⚠️ Do not “teach the controversy”. If there are many interpretations of a passage, it requires more discussion than a comment can provide. Give a link.
• ⚠️ Do not quote or paraphrase the commentary unless it is necessary to explain a translation choice. Ensure the meaning of the text is clear in the translation.
• ⚠️ Do not use comments to apologize for the text. Eg., “the text says bhikkhu but the commentary says it includes lay meditators too!” Treat your readers with respect.
• ⚠️ Do not use comments to make up for poor translation! Never think, “This text is unclear, I’ll explain it in the notes.” Make it clear! Assume readers will read without notes. Notes should provide additional background and information, not act as a crutch for sloppy translation.

Do

• Keep comments short. If you are writing more than two or three sentences, it’s an essay. Put it on Discourse or wherever and add a link.
  • Comments do not have internal structures like lists or paragraphs.
• Do your fact checking. Make sure comments are reliable.
• Be disciplined. Make sure comments are clear and helpful.
• Keep yourself out of it. It’s not about you, it’s about the text. Nevertheless, you may acknowledge if a choice is based on personal preference.
• Maintain a neutral voice.
• Explain your translation choices. People compare translations, so it is helpful for them to know why your translation differs.
• Add contextual information not in the text, such as background on the place or persons. But don’t just repeat commentarial stories.
• Give short explanations of doctrines where helpful.
• Remember that suttas are not read sequentially on the web, so repeating notes is okay.
• Add cross references.
• Compare with Chinese or other sources.
• Read and re-read your comments to make sure they are well-written and clear. Comments should be glanceable; check a fact and move on.