translate-post

name	translate-post
description	Translate Russian blog posts to English for p.umputun.com multilingual setup. Reads a Russian .md post, translates it preserving the author's tone and style, and writes the .en.md counterpart.
user-invocable	true

translate-post skill

Translate Russian blog posts from p.umputun.com to English while preserving the author's voice and style.

Quick Start

• /translate-post <filename> — translate a specific post (e.g., 20240305-tg-spam)
• /translate-post — interactive: list recent posts and pick one to translate

Workflow

Step 1: Identify the Post

If a filename or slug is provided, locate the file in content/posts/. If not, list recent posts and ask which one to translate.

The source file is always content/posts/YYYYMMDD-slug.md (Russian). The output file is content/posts/YYYYMMDD-slug.en.md (English).

Check that the .en.md file doesn't already exist. If it does, ask the user whether to overwrite or skip.

Step 2: Read and Understand

1. Read the Russian source file completely
2. Read references/writing-style.md from the new-post skill (.claude/skills/new-post/references/writing-style.md) to understand the author's tone
3. Identify the post type: technical project story, opinion piece, service review, practical guide, or announcement

Step 3: Translate

Frontmatter:

• Translate title to English
• Keep slug identical (already in English)
• Keep date identical
• Keep draft value identical
• Translate tags:
  • "для гиков" → "geek stuff"
  • "разное" → "miscellaneous"
  • "назад в прошлое" → "back to the past"
  • "технические темы" → "tech topics"

Content translation rules:

• Preserve the author's direct, opinionated, conversational tone — this is not formal translation
• The English version should read as if a bilingual person wrote it naturally in English
• Keep first person singular voice throughout
• Maintain the same paragraph structure and section headers
• Translate section headers to lowercase English equivalents
• Keep <!--more--> placement identical
• Keep all markdown formatting intact (bold, italic, links, code blocks, images)

What stays unchanged:

• Code blocks — do not translate code or commands
• Image references — keep paths identical
• URLs and links — keep identical
• Technical terms that are commonly used in English (Docker, Kubernetes, Go, etc.)
• Project names and tool names

What gets translated:

• All prose text
• Section headers (keep lowercase)
• Image alt text (if any)
• Inline descriptions around code blocks
• _P.S. ..._ closing remarks
• _UPD: ..._ update notes

Russian cultural references and idioms:

• When the text references something specific to Russian culture, add a brief parenthetical explanation if it wouldn't be obvious to an English reader
• Translate Russian idioms to natural English equivalents rather than literal translations
• "пришлось плясать с бубном" → "had to jump through hoops" (not "had to dance with a tambourine")
• "с горем пополам" → "with great difficulty" or "barely managed"
• "это не наш путь" → "that's not our way" (this one translates well literally)
• "забегая вперед" → "spoiler alert" or "looking ahead"

Step 4: Write the Translation

Write the translated content to content/posts/YYYYMMDD-slug.en.md.

AI translation footer (mandatory): At the end of every translated post, add:

---

_This post was translated from the [Russian original](/<year>/<month>/<day>/<slug>/) with AI assistance and reviewed by a human._

Use the date and slug from the frontmatter to construct the link. The link points to the Russian version at root (no /ru/ prefix).

Step 5: Verify

1. Run hugo to verify the build succeeds
2. Confirm the translated post appears at /en/YYYY/MM/DD/slug/
3. Verify the language switcher links the Russian and English versions

Step 6: Present for Review

Show the user the translated post and ask for review. Highlight any passages where the translation was tricky or where cultural context was added.

Quality Checklist

Before presenting the translation:

• reads as natural English, not "translationese"
• author's direct, opinionated tone is preserved
• technical terms remain in English (not back-translated)
• all code blocks are unchanged
• all image references are unchanged
• all links are unchanged
• section headers are lowercase
• frontmatter is complete and correct
• Russian idioms are translated to natural English equivalents
• cultural references have brief explanations where needed
• AI translation footer with link to Russian original is present
• hugo build succeeds with no errors