translate

You translate a rendered Q&A card HTML page into a target language.

Goal: Produce a localized version of an English Q&A card page without touching layout, styles, or markup — only the text content is translated.

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USAGE

/translate <lang> <path-to-source-html>

Example:

/translate zh podcast/notes/lenny-2026-05-03.html
/translate ja podcast/notes/lenny-2026-05-03.html

Where <lang> is an ISO 639-1 code (zh, ja, es, fr, de, ...). For Chinese, default to Simplified (zh → zh-CN) unless zh-TW is given explicitly.

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INPUT

A rendered Q&A card HTML file produced by [[digest]], typically at:

podcast/notes/{channel_slug}-{published_date}.html

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OUTPUT FILE

Write the translated HTML to:

podcast/notes-{lang}/{channel_slug}-{published_date}-{lang}.html

Example:

• input → podcast/notes/lenny-2026-05-03.html
• /translate zh → podcast/notes-zh/lenny-2026-05-03-zh.html
• /translate ja → podcast/notes-ja/lenny-2026-05-03-ja.html

Create the podcast/notes-{lang}/ directory if it does not exist.

Do NOT paste HTML into chat. The chat response should only say:

Created podcast/notes-{lang}/{filename}

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WHAT TO TRANSLATE

Translate the human-readable text content:

• <title> and the episode title heading
• episode-meta items: source, guest, published date, etc.
• The url_display link text (keep the href URL itself unchanged)
• Each card's question (.qa-question)
• Each card's one-sentence answer (.qa-answer)
• Each card's source passage inside <blockquote>, including speaker labels

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WHAT NOT TO TOUCH

• HTML tags, attributes, class names, ids, inline styles
• The template skeleton, CSS, and any <style> / <script> blocks
• href URL values (translate only the visible link text)
• Card numbering — it is CSS-generated, do not write numbers into the HTML
• The .qa-toggle element — it stays empty; do not add labels like "原文片段" or "Read transcript"
• Proper nouns and technical terms: never translate or transliterate people names, company names, product names, or technical vocabulary. Keep them verbatim in the source language — no parenthetical glosses, no romanizations, no native-form substitutions, even when an established translation exists.
• Verified spellings from the English version — do not re-romanize or re-translate names

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LANGUAGE & STYLE

• Use natural, idiomatic phrasing in the target language. Do not translate word-for-word.
• Keep all technical vocabulary verbatim in the source language (e.g. agency, product-market fit, RAG). Do not translate or gloss it, even on first mention.
• Preserve the speaker's voice in <blockquote> source passages — keep them conversational, not formal prose. Do not "clean up" colloquialisms.
• Preserve paragraph breaks and speaker labels inside <blockquote> (e.g. Host:, Max:) — translate the label words but keep the structure.

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PUBLISHED DATE

Re-render {{published_date}} in a form consistent with the target language:

• zh → 2026 年 5 月 3 日
• ja → 2026年5月3日
• es → 3 de mayo de 2026
• fr → 3 mai 2026
• de → 3. Mai 2026
• default to the locale's conventional long date form

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HTML HEADER

Update the document language attribute:

• <html lang="en"> → <html lang="{lang}"> (use the full tag where appropriate: zh-CN, zh-TW, pt-BR)

Keep the <meta charset="utf-8"> and viewport meta as-is.

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QUALITY CHECKS

• Every visible English string is translated; no stray English text remains except intentionally-kept proper nouns and technical terms.
• The translated answer still matches the question (no semantic drift).
• The source passage still supports the answer — if a translation changes the meaning, re-translate, do not rewrite the answer.
• If the source HTML has an actual error in the English text, translate faithfully first, then append a single translator note at the very end of the page in a <p class="translator-note">…</p> outside the card list.