Translation Resources

This page contains links to resources for people wanting to translate occult and spiritual texts.

You can assist others by suggesting any articles, books, or other resources relating to translating occult texts. Add your suggestions via the comments box below.

I have started work on an English-Spanish occult and magic glossary in Google Translator Toolkit’s glossary format. If you would like to collaborate on this, or have access to the glossary for downloading, then simply contact me. The glossary format allows for multiple languages, so it would be useful to add languages other than Spanish to make it a comprehensive resource for anyone needing to translate occult material.

Multi-lingual Tools

Encyclopaedias, Dictionaries, & Wikis

• Babylon.com Free Dictionaries
  User created glossaries with translations into many languages. Specifically useful: Religion & Spirituality with subcategories Astrology, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Occult & Mysticism; Psychology; and Mythology & Folklore.
• Dictionary.com
  Includes an etymological dictionary, (no longer provides access to the Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary)
• The Free Dictionary
  A Comprehensive multi-lingual dictionary that offers translations for many words. (example: occult)
• Indo-European Etymological Dictionary
  A research project of the Department of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at Leiden University. It aims at producing a dictionary containing all words in the Indo-European languages that can be traced back to the proto-language.
• Indo-European Roots Index (now only available via Archive.org)
  From: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. Very useful for etymology of words.
• Wiktionary
  Wiktionary can often be used to find translations of topics by using the inter-language wiki links and entries often have translation tables for multiple languages. (example: occult)
• Wikipedia
  Wikipedia can often be used to find translations of topics by using the inter-language wiki links. (example: English: occult -> Español occultismo)
• Word Reference
  Comprehensive multilingual dictionary.

Forums

• Cucumis
  Cucumis is a free online translation service using a community of translators.
• Free Translation Forum
  Allows you to find a volunteer translator from any language to any language for short text or words.
• Kudoz Forum
  Proz – The translation workplace has an ‘Esoteric Practices’ section. Many languages supported.
• TranslatorsCafé.com
  A website for translation professionals, however anyone can ask translation related questions in the TCTerms forum. Many languages supported.
• Word Reference Language Forums
  Forums in multiple languages

Online Automated Translation Tools

• Babylon
  Multilingual language full text translation
• Google Translate
  Multilingual language full text translation (improves over time with user feedback. I’ve notice improving accuracy for Spanish-English or English-Spanish translations)
• Reference.com Translate
  Full Text Translator & Multilingual Dictionary
• Yahoo! Babel Fish
  (formerly Altavista Babel Fish). Multilingual full text translation

Newsletters

• International Writers’ Group
  Offers a free (or paid version) newsletter entitled Tool Kit. Also produces A Translator’s Tool Box – A Computer Primer for Translators

Translation Tools and Software

• Anaphraseus (formerly OpenWordfast)
  A CAT (Computer Aided Translation) tool, OpenOffice.org 2 macro set similar to famous Wordfast. A review is available here.
• Google Translator Toolkit
  Google’s free CAT tool. You can use shared or global translation memory, and there is the ability to build a glossary. Automatic translations are offered from Google Translate, making for very rapid translations.
• Wordfast Translation Studio
  A CAT (Computer Aided Translation) add-on for MS Word. Considered by many to be an industry leader, it is freely downloadable and the demo mode allows a fairly large 500 entries into a translation memory file before registration is required.

Specific Books

• Blue Letter Bible
  As well as multiple English translations you can find the Reina-Valera (RVR) of the Spanish Protestant Church; The Latin Vulgate (Vulgate); Textus Receptus (TR) which is the Greek text compiled by Erasmus around 1516; Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC) Hebrew text; and Septuagint (LXX) Greek Old Testament. (example: Genesis 1:1)
• Kybalion.org has links to the Kybalion in various languages (some links currently outdated, but may be accessible via archive.org)

Language-Specific Tools

Hebrew Language Tools

• Transliterate Hebrew text
  An online tool by Alex Sirota that can transliterate Hebrew to Latin letters, and vice versa.

Spanish Language Tools

• Word Magic English/Spanish Dictionary
  Online bilingual English-Spanish dictionary that features short phrases as well as single words.
• SpanishDict
  Comprehensive English-Spanish dictionary.
• English<>Spanish Dictionary (Granada University, Spain)
  Comprehensive English-Spanish dictionary.

Last modified: 14 January 2011