Applying Double-Entry Bookkeeping Principles to Bible Translation

#translation

This idea was co-ideated with Ben Scholtens

Double-Entry Translation, or Ledger Translation (LT), is a framework that adapts the principles of double-entry bookkeeping to ensure accuracy, consistency, and a clear mapping between the source and target texts in the Bible translation process.

The framework consists of the following components:

1. Translation Accounts:

   • Source Text (ST): The original text, treated as an asset.
   • Translated Text (TT): The new translation, treated as a liability.
   • Translation Mapping (TM): The mapping between ST and TT, representing the transactions or “translation-actions” for translation-units at multiple levels of granularity (e.g., meaning-based alignments, sliding-window ngram alignments, etc.).

2. Translation Journal: A chronological record of all translation entries, including the source text, multiple translated texts, and their corresponding translation mappings.

3. Translation Ledger: A collection of “posted” translations and their reconciled mappings, perhaps organized by book, chapter, and verse, representing the accepted translations and alignments.

4. Translation Process:

   • One or more translators create journal entries for each translation unit, including the source text (ST), multiple translated texts (TT1, TT2, etc.), and their respective translation mappings (TM1, TM2, etc.).
   • Each translation mapping “debits” the source text and “credits” its corresponding translated text, ensuring a balanced and accurate representation of the translation process. Anything credited to the translation can be debited from the source text, and vice versa for full accountability.

5. Reconciliation and Review:

   • Editors review the translation journal entries to ensure accuracy and consistency between the source text, multiple translated texts, and their mappings.
   • Discrepancies or issues are discussed and resolved, with the goal of creating a reconciled translation—there can be more than one accepted version for any unit, though a published version might be expected to arrive at a single preferred version for a given project—and mapping for each translation unit.
   • The reconciled translation and mapping are “posted” to the translation ledger, linking to the relevant journal entries.
   • The ledger entry represents a balanced translation that accounts for the credits, debits by way of the linking or mapping between the source and target texts.

6. Reporting and Iterative Publishing:

   • Regular reports summarize translation progress, including the number of translation units processed, reviewed, reconciled, and posted to the ledger.
   • These reports can be used as a mechanism for iterative publishing, allowing the translation team to share their work in progress and gather feedback without the pressure of producing a finished product.
   • Iterative publishing helps maintain transparency, engage stakeholders, encourage believers, and refine the translation over time.

7. Breaking Down Translation Units and Machine Translation:

   • The LT Framework enables the translation process to be broken down into smaller, manageable units, such as phrases or sentences, rather than focusing on larger segments like paragraphs or chapters.
   • As the translation progresses, the growing dataset of source texts, translated texts, and their mappings can be used to train and refine statistical and neural machine translation models.
   • These models can provide suggestions and assistance to translators, improving efficiency and consistency as the project grows.

By allowing for multiple translations and mappings to be submitted via the journal, and then reconciling them into balanced ledger entries, the LT Framework promotes collaboration and ensures that the final translation is a result of careful consideration and consensus.

The linking of ledger entries to their corresponding journal entries maintains a clear “audit trail” and allows for a comprehensive understanding of the translation process. This approach enhances transparency, accountability, and the overall quality of the translated text. More intriguingly, the LT Framework is a decentralized, collaborative, and iterative framework that does not rely on external expertise, and that can adapt to various translation projects, languages, and contexts, making it a valuable tool for emerging Bible translation projects and teams around the world.