Cuimao Translator

PDF Book Translator (English → Chinese)

Three-mode translation skill for turning English PDF books into natural, fluent Chinese. The core commitment is sentence-by-sentence fidelity — every sentence in the original must exist in the translation, with no meaning added or lost — while reading as if written by a skilled Chinese author.

Modes

Choose the right depth for the task:

Auto-detection

• "快翻", "quick", "直接翻译", "快速翻译", "速译" → Quick
• "精翻", "refined", "精细翻译", "出版级", "深度翻译", "精译" → Refined
• Everything else → Normal (default)

Mode upgrade

After Normal mode completes, ask:

翻译已保存。如需进一步审校润色，回复 "继续润色" 或 "refine"。

If user agrees, proceed with Review → Revise → Polish (same as Refined mode Steps 4-6) on the existing output.

Style Presets

Control the voice and tone of the Chinese output:

If no style is specified, detect from the book's content and tone. For most books, storytelling is a safe default. literal is recommended for technical reference material.

Core Translation Philosophy

信 Faithfulness — The anchor

• Every English sentence must have a corresponding Chinese sentence
• Facts, numbers, logic, and proper names must match exactly
• Never summarize, skip, or embellish
• Every paragraph break, emphasis, and structural choice from the original must be preserved

达 Fluency — The craft

• The Chinese must read naturally, not like translated text
• Reorder clauses into natural Chinese topic-comment structure
• Drop unnecessary English connectives (and, but, that, which)
• Break long English sentences into natural Chinese breath groups (意群), 7-15 characters each
• Use proper Chinese rhythm: alternate long and short sentences
• Active voice over passive: Chinese uses 被 far less than English uses passive. Prefer 由/受/让 or restructure into topic-comment
• Verb complements over adverbs: "walked slowly" → "走得很慢", not "慢慢地走"

雅 Cultural Adaptation — The art

• When English idioms, slang, cultural references, or metaphors cannot be directly translated, find Chinese equivalents that convey the same meaning and emotional impact
• Think about what a Chinese reader would understand, not what the English words literally say
• For cultural references unknown to Chinese readers, add brief inline explanation: （译注：...）
• For puns/wordplay that cannot be translated, translate the meaning and note the wordplay in translator's note

Native Chinese Quality Checklist

After translating, especially in Normal and Refined modes, self-review for these common "translation-ese" problems:

Europeanized Chinese (欧化中文) — The 6 Red Flags

1. 过度使用"被"字句: "He was praised" → "他受到了表扬" (not "他被表扬了")
2. 不必要的连接词堆砌: "因为...所以...", "虽然...但是...", "当...的时候" — Chinese often omits these when context is clear
3. 定语堆叠过长: English long pre-modifiers → Split into multiple short clauses in Chinese
4. "之一"泛滥: "one of the most..." → "极其..." / "...得很", not always "...之一"
5. "的"字密度过高: If three or more 的 appear in one sentence, restructure
6. 名词化泛滥: "the implementation of..." → "实施..." (verb), not "...的实施" (noun phrase)

Rhythm & Breath

• Read the Chinese aloud in your mind. Does it breathe naturally?
• Alternate sentence lengths. Three long sentences in a row → break one up
• Use four-character phrases (四字格) sparingly for rhythm, not ornamentation
• Chinese prose values 留白 (suggested space) — don't over-explain what the original leaves implied

Output Format

Chinese-only translation. Do NOT include the English original. The reader wants a clean Chinese reading experience.

Full book structure

# [Book Title] — 中文翻译

## 翻译说明
- 原文：[Book Title] by [Author]
- 翻译方式：逐句翻译（[模式]模式，[风格]风格）
- 翻译原则：信（忠实原文）、达（中文流畅）、雅（文化适配）

---

## Chapter N: [Chapter Title]

### [Section heading if any]

中文翻译段落内容。

中文翻译段落内容。

---

*— 第 N 章完 —*

• Preserve all chapter and section structure from the original PDF
• Skip PDF page numbers and running headers
• Output Chinese only, no English original
• Add --- between chapters, *— 第 N 章完 —* at chapter end

Workflow

Step 0: Choose Mode & Style

If the user hasn't specified, auto-detect from their phrasing. For books, Normal mode is the default starting point. If the user's quality expectation is unclear, ask briefly: "用标准模式还是精翻模式？精翻模式会逐章审校润色，质量更高但耗时更长。"

Step 1: Pre-Translation Analysis

Quick mode: Skip analysis, translate directly.

Normal & Refined modes: Before translating, do a lightweight content analysis. Save as [book-title]-analysis.md:

## 内容概要
- 主题领域、核心论点
- 作者背景和写作立场
- 目标读者

## 术语提取
| 英文 | 中文 | 备注 |
|------|------|------|
| term | 翻译 | context |

## 语气与风格
- 正式/口语化？幽默/严肃？
- 叙事视角（第一人称/第三人称/全知？）
- 建议的翻译风格：[style preset]

## 翻译难点预警
- [具体段落/表达] → 难点类型（隐喻/文化梗/长难句/双关）→ 建议处理方式

For books, this analysis is done once for the entire book (scan first 10-20 pages + table of contents). The analysis informs all subsequent chunk translations, ensuring consistency.

Step 2: Read & Translate

Quick mode: Read PDF pages → Translate directly → Write to [filename]-chinese.md.

Normal mode: Read chunk → Translate paragraph-by-paragraph, informed by analysis → Append to output.

Refined mode: Full five-step pipeline per chapter (see Refined Workflow below).

Step 3: Chunking Strategy for Books

Books are translated chapter by chapter, with chapters further split if they exceed ~3000 English words.

For each chunk:

1. Read the PDF pages using the Read tool
2. Translate paragraph by paragraph, applying:
   • The terminology table from Step 1 analysis (be consistent across all chunks)
   • The chosen style preset
   • All translation principles from this skill
3. Self-check: Did every English sentence get translated? Does the Chinese read naturally?
4. Write to the output file (Write for first chunk, Edit to append subsequent chunks)
5. Report progress: "已翻译 第N章 (Px-Py)，共约 Z 页"

Terminology consistency across chunks: Before translating each new chunk, review the terminology table from the analysis. When encountering a term already in the table, use the established translation. When encountering a new term, add it to the table.

Resuming interrupted work

1. Read the existing output file and analysis file to find where translation stopped
2. Check which pages/chapters remain
3. Continue from the next un-translated page

Refined Mode: Full Five-Step Pipeline

For publication-quality output. Each step reads the previous step's output and builds on it. All intermediate files are saved.

Step R1: Analyze (same as Step 1 above)

Save to [book-title]-analysis.md

Step R2: Draft

Translate the full chapter, applying analysis findings. Save to [chapter]-draft.md. This is the raw translation — it will be refined.

Step R3: Critical Review

Review the draft against the original. Diagnosis only — no rewriting yet. Save to [chapter]-critique.md:

## 准确性
- [问题]: [位置] — [描述：增译/漏译/误译/术语不一致]

## 中文自然度（欧化中文检查）
- [问题]: [原译] → [建议改法]

## 文化适配
- [术语/隐喻]: [当前译法] → [建议调整及理由]

## 总结
[共发现 X 处准确性问题，Y 处表达问题]

Key review lens — flag any sentence that reads as "translated" rather than "written":

• Unnatural word order that mirrors English
• Stiff phrasing that a native Chinese writer would never produce
• Overuse of 被/的/之一/当...时/如果...那么
• Metaphors translated literally that sound foreign in Chinese
• Emotional tone flattened or shifted

Step R4: Revise

Apply all findings from the critique. Save to [chapter]-revision.md. Fix all accuracy issues, rewrite unnatural expressions, adjust notes, improve flow.

Step R5: Polish

Final pass for publication quality:

• Read the entire translation as a standalone piece — does it flow as native content?
• Smooth remaining rough transitions
• Ensure consistent narrative voice and style throughout
• Final terminology consistency check
• Save final to [chapter]-chinese.md

Handling Special Content

Images & diagrams in PDF

• Note them in place: [图片：描述]
• After translation, if the PDF contains text-heavy images (diagrams, charts, screenshots), remind the user: "文中插图可能仍含英文原文，需要手动本地化。"
• Do not attempt to translate image text unless the user specifically asks

Footnotes & endnotes

• Translate footnote text but keep footnote numbers
• Preserve footnote placement (page bottom or chapter end)

Code, formulas, technical notation

• Keep exactly as-is — no translation

Tables

• Translate cell by cell
• Preserve table structure exactly

Dialogue

• Use 「」 quotation marks for dialogue in Chinese (consistent throughout)
• Add speech rhythm particles: 啊, 吧, 呢, 嘛 where natural
• Preserve character voice: a professor and a teenager must sound different in Chinese

Configuration (EXTEND.md)

Optional. Create .pdf-translator/EXTEND.md in the project root to set persistent preferences:

target_language: zh-CN
default_mode: normal        # quick | normal | refined
style: storytelling         # literal | storytelling | elegant | academic | conversational
audience: general           # general | technical | academic | young-readers
chunk_max_words: 3000

glossary:
  "term": "翻译"
  "another term": "另一个翻译"

glossary_files:
  - custom-glossary.md

If EXTEND.md is not found, ask once and save. If found, use it. If the user wants to change mid-session, they can just say so.

Example

Input (English PDF paragraph):

The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him. He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky.

Output (storytelling style):

老头儿教过那孩子打鱼，孩子也爱他。他是个独自在湾流里的一只小船上打鱼的老头儿，他如今已经接连八十四天一条鱼也没打着了。头四十天里，有个孩子跟他在一起。可是过了四十天一条鱼都没打到，孩子爹妈就跟他说，这老头儿如今是彻底"倒了血霉"（salao），意思就是倒霉到了极点。

Reference Files

• references/translation-guide.md — Detailed EN→ZH sentence transformation patterns, domain-specific glossaries, dialogue handling. Read when dealing with complex passages.
• references/glossary-en-zh.md — Built-in English→Chinese terminology glossary for common terms with non-obvious translations. Consult when translating technical or specialized content.
• references/refined-workflow.md — Extended guidelines for the Refined mode five-step pipeline. Read when user selects Refined mode.

Quick Reference: Pre-Flight Checklist

Before delivering any translation, verify:

• Every English sentence has a corresponding Chinese sentence
• Numbers, dates, proper names match the original exactly
• No sentence reads as obvious "translation-ese" (被/的/之一 abuse)
• Paragraph structure matches the original
• Terminology is consistent (check against analysis/glossary)
• Chapter/section headings are translated and formatted correctly