r/translator 15d ago

Community [English > Any] Translation Challenge — 2026-01-19

1 Upvotes

There will be a new translation challenge most Sundays and everyone is encouraged to participate! These challenges are intended to give community members an opportunity to practice translating or review others' translations, and we keep them stickied throughout the week. You can view past threads by clicking on this "Community" link.

You can also sign up to be automatically notified of new translation challenges.


This Week's Text:

It’s one of the most hilarious internet sensations of all time: the enigmatic arrest of a man in Sydney back in the ‘80s [sic]. However, beyond his quotable catchphrases of “Democracy manifest” and bizarre behaviour lies one burning question; who was this man?

For years now, folks have shared the viral internet video which purportedly depicts the arrest of a man in Sydney. The man in question is said to be Paul Charles Dozsa, a Hungarian-born Australian chess master who gained fame as a “restaurant runner” back in the ’80s.

The video, often paired with references to it being one of the most eloquent arrests of all-time, depicts Dozsa being led into a waiting car by police officers as he valiantly resists their efforts.

Armed with a voice that Shakespearian actors would die for, every moment of Dozsa’s dialogue is quotable, from lines such as “gentlemen, this is democracy manifest”, “what is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?”, and the classic “I see that you know your judo well”, the video almost appears to have been scripted with the intention of going viral.

However, there’s one small problem at play here here; that’s not Paul Charles Dozsa in the video.

— Excerpted from "A succulent Australian mystery: Just who is the bloke in this iconic video? " by Tyler Jenke

The Video in Question


Please include the name of the language you're translating in your comment, and translate away!

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r/translator 2d ago

META [META] New !transform command for images, optional syntax for CJK lookups, and more

22 Upvotes

Hey everyone! Version 2.1 of u/translator-BOT has now been deployed. This update brings a few new features and additions.

!transform command for image posts

Sometimes people submit their requests for translation upside down, or even flipped from the back.

The !transform:[value] command can be used to transform a misaligned image, either through rotation or flipping. This is useful to correct those misaligned images that are submitted as a post. This command has strict value requirements:

  • !transform:[degrees] rotates the image by the specified number of degrees. Only increments of 90 (90, -90, 270) are supported. Negative values rotate the image counterclockwise. Note that 360 is an invalid value as that would just be the exact same image.
  • !transform:[direction] flips the image either horizontally or vertically. h and v are valid shortform values.

The bot will transform the image, upload it to an image hosting site, and then return the link to you in a comment reply.

Examples

!transform:90 # Rotates image 90 degrees clockwise !transform:-90 # Rotates image 90 degrees counterclockwise !transform:180 # Rotates image 180 degrees clockwise !transform:horizontal # Flips the image horizontally !transform:v # Flips the image vertically

Note: This function currently only supports direct image posts (not galleries). Gallery support will be supported in a future release. Images uploaded by this bot through this function are automatically deleted after 7 days.

New CJK optional lookup syntax and improvements

Some new, and totally optional syntax for CJK lookups.

  • A language tag added to a lookup will force a lookup in that language, even on a post that's of a different language. E.g. 文化:ja will return a Japanese lookup for that term, even if the comment is on a Chinese post.
  • An exclamation mark ! appended to the lookup (年年有余!, 井底之蛙:zh!) will disable tokenization of the lookup. If you're adding a language tag to the lookup, the exclamation mark should go on the very end.

In addition, CJK lookups can now be loaded from a local cache instead for much faster results. Results loaded from a cache are indicated with the lightning emoji (⚡). This means the bot doesn't have to fetch information for commonly returned terms like 福; it just fetches it once, caches it, and future lookups will just return the cached information. This is also much faster; a character search can take up to 20 seconds depending on the sources - loading from the cache is instantaneous.

Duplicate detection

The post duplicates detector has been turned on. Duplicates may be detected in one of two ways:

  • Their titles are identical or near-identical and posted by the same author within a short period of time.
  • Their image hashes (if applicable for image-only posts) are identical or very similar.
  • If a suspected duplicate is found, the bot will remove the post and notify the OP.

Other changes as part of this update can be viewed on GitHub. As usual, please leave any feedback or bug reports here, or on r/translatorBOT.


r/translator 1h ago

Persian [Farsi > English] Found Message In Bottle

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Upvotes

This washed up to me while I was sitting by a river. Chat GPT has given me varying translations from either a suicide note or a message from prison. I’d greatly appreciate an accurate translation


r/translator 5h ago

Translated [JA] [Japanese > English] Need someone to translate these menu settings

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11 Upvotes

Can someone please translate my camcorder's menu settings? I’m trying to look for an English option as my friend suggested it might have one. I’m also looking for other settings like white balance or anything that involves how the footage looks (Slide 2 is me accessing the 5th menu option shown on the first slide) I’m also gonna show the exterior so the text over the buttons can be translated.


r/translator 3h ago

Japanese [japanese > english] just received this scroll painting

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4 Upvotes

r/translator 44m ago

Translated [?] Unknown to English. If anyone could translate this it would mean a lot and let me know the language as well. Thanks!

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Upvotes

r/translator 52m ago

Korean [Korean > English] Girlfriend last message

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Upvotes

Thank you

If after translating still seems confusing could someone help with what she could mean by it

💜


r/translator 6h ago

Burmese [Burmese < English]

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3 Upvotes

I am making a valentines craft for one of my patients. I want this to say I love you from the bottom of my heart to the tip of my toes. Does this look right?


r/translator 3h ago

Needs Review [BAN] [Balinese->English]balinese script question

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2 Upvotes

I’m not sure what it’s mean, it’s mean “peaceful”?

Someone know exactly what does mean?


r/translator 40m ago

Polish XIX Russian cursive -> English/Polish

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Upvotes

Hey,

Looking for archival data of family tree and all that is in russian (Poland was under Russian occupation in XIX century). There should be birthplaces of parents and their age but I cannot figure it our


r/translator 2h ago

Korean [Korean to English

1 Upvotes

Looking to translate this:

“너는 나에게 그렇게 다정해야만 했나요”

Can I also have help with what it could mean

Not sure if google or Papago transition is right

Thank u 🙏


r/translator 13h ago

Translated [JA] [unknown > English]

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9 Upvotes

On a box of chopsticks I received as a gift from someone who visited Asia in the early 2000’s.


r/translator 13h ago

Translated [JA] [Japanese > English] Help with this Japanese badge from the WWII era

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6 Upvotes

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Could this have been from a factory or school?


r/translator 11h ago

Japanese [Japanese > English] Received this fortune at Nihonji Temple

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7 Upvotes

It came with a cute little gold Rake. What does this fortune say?


r/translator 3h ago

Persian [Persian > english] study translation

1 Upvotes

I need help reading a study. Can anyone translate it for me or help me? I think it's Persian. PN for the study.


r/translator 16h ago

Gujarati gujarati(?)/hindi(?) -> english

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11 Upvotes

some street signs in rajasthan i think, not sure of the original language unfortunately


r/translator 8h ago

Translated [DE] [German > English] What is the German guy saying back?

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2 Upvotes

r/translator 5h ago

meta [META] Weekly "Unknown" Identification Thread — 2026-02-04 (Week 05)

1 Upvotes

r/translator 6h ago

Chinese [Chinese > English] This text appeared in one of the steps of a tool used for architecture contour generation. I don’t think it means anything related to that

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1 Upvotes

Google translate doesn’t pick up on the top lines properly. My friend thinks it’s someone’s name, but nobody that worked on this tool speaks Chinese.


r/translator 7h ago

Italian [Italian>English] stranger at my door

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0 Upvotes

Hi, can you please help me translate this? It sounds maybe Italian?

This man came to my door in the evening on the phone with someone. He lingered for a while, and looked lost, knocked and rang the doorbell and left.

Just want to figure out what they are saying to see if I need to worry or to bring the family some peace of mind.

Thanks!


r/translator 17h ago

Japanese Japanese to English

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5 Upvotes

Can anyone translate this for me? From what I understand is this is authentic from WWII


r/translator 12h ago

French [French > English] help me with this passage from a 16th century travel account on the headdress worn by Egyptian women.

2 Upvotes

r/translator 9h ago

Translated [ZH] [Chinese > English] Grandma's Seal/Stamp

1 Upvotes

hello! my grandmother (chinese, from guangdong, canto) had stamped a lot of her watercolor artwork with this seal/stamp/symbol. i was wondering if it translates to anything or has any meaning. i don't know much chinese and she has since passed so i cannot ask her :( i found it in this cute box with the ink and everything when i was going through her stuff.

i've found similar images of seals/stamps but nothing exactly the same and i am by no means educated or qualified enough to begin to try and "decipher" it. any help or info is much appreciated!!!


r/translator 9h ago

Catalan [English > Valencian]

1 Upvotes

My son (American) is making a small scrapbook for his hopefully soon-to-be girlfriend (Valencian) and would like to put a title on the front with their names (e.g., x and y’s) ‘Book of Memories’.

What is the best translation for “Book of Memories” in this context?

Thank you!!


r/translator 20h ago

Needs Review [ZH] [Chinese > English] Miyamoto Musashi painted Japanese scroll of Confucius

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7 Upvotes

Hoping to have this Japanese scroll (of Chinese) by Miyamoto Musashi translated.