Text Translator

Text Translator

Translate text between languages using free, no-API-key methods.

Requirements

• translate-shell (trans) — install: sudo apt-get install translate-shell
• No API keys needed

Instructions

Basic translation

# Translate with explicit source/target
trans -b en:ja "Hello, how are you?"

# Auto-detect source language
trans -b :en "こんにちは"

# Detailed output with alternatives and pronunciation
trans en:de "Good morning"

# Translate a file
trans -b en:fr -i input.txt -o output.txt

Common language codes

en English, ja Japanese, zh Chinese, ko Korean, fr French, de German, es Spanish, pt Portuguese, it Italian, ru Russian, ar Arabic, hi Hindi, th Thai, vi Vietnamese

Batch translation

# Translate multiple lines (one per line)
while IFS= read -r line; do
  trans -b :en "$line"
  sleep 0.5  # Rate limit courtesy
done < input.txt

Output format

**Translation** (en → ja):
| Original | Translation |
|----------|-------------|
| Hello | こんにちは |
| Thank you | ありがとうございます |

*Powered by Google Translate via translate-shell*

Edge Cases

• trans not installed: Check with which trans. Provide install command for the user's OS.
• Rate limiting: Google Translate may throttle after many requests. Add sleep 0.5 between batch calls.
• Long text: Split into paragraphs for better translation quality and to avoid timeouts.
• Unsupported language: trans -R lists all supported languages. Suggest closest match.
• Special characters: Quote the input string to prevent shell interpretation.
• Offline: trans requires internet — no offline fallback available.

Security

• Translation sends text to Google Translate servers — never translate sensitive data (passwords, API keys, private documents).
• Warn user if the text appears to contain credentials or PII.

Notes

• translate-shell is the recommended method — stable, packaged in most Linux distros.
• The undocumented Google Translate API endpoint may break without notice — prefer trans.