Translation synthesis

Translation Synthesis (Stage 6a)

Generate a structure-preserving English translation aligned 1:1 with the Greek reference system.

This skill is the Stage 6a owner — the first half of Stage 6.

Stage 6a is conditional. Before this skill runs, the orchestrator attempts the witness versification fast path (/versify try-witness). If a versification-candidate witness is successfully versified (100% coverage, 1:1 mapping), that witness becomes the versified edition and Stage 6a is skipped entirely.

Stage 6a runs when:

• No witness is classified as versification-candidate
• All versification-candidate witnesses fail automated versification (segment count mismatch, reference mismatch, coverage < 100%)
• The orchestrator explicitly requests fresh generation

When Stage 6a does run, the generated translation is the primary English content for that text.

Quick Status

Generated translation chapters: !find ${LYCEUM_TEXTS_DIR:-output/texts} -path '*/versification/chapter_*.json' 2>/dev/null | wc -l Texts with generated translations: !find ${LYCEUM_TEXTS_DIR:-output/texts} -path '*/versification/chapter_01.json' 2>/dev/null | xargs -I{} dirname {} | xargs -I{} dirname {} | sort -u | wc -l

Commands

• /translation-synthesis run [work] — Generate or regenerate the verse-aligned translation for one text
• /translation-synthesis review [work] — Re-run adversarial review on existing generated translations
• /translation-synthesis status [work] — Summarize generation progress, review verdicts, and known issues

Target: $ARGUMENTS

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Owned Responsibilities

Owns

• Stage 6a translation generation
• structure-preserving English output (one segment per Greek segment)
• adversarial review against PD witness translations
• generation metadata (model, timestamp, witness used)
• review reports with issues and verdicts

Does not own

• PD witness collection (Stage 5 — translation-witness)
• structural validation and DB import (Stage 6b — versify)
• interlinear/gloss generation (Stage 8)
• final ship promotion (Stage 10)

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Witness Versification (Fast Path)

Before Stage 6a generation runs, the orchestrator invokes /versify try-witness [work] to attempt the fast path. This is documented here for context — the actual logic lives in the versify skill.

When the fast path succeeds

• A versification-candidate witness was found in the witness catalog
• Its references map 1:1 to Greek segments
• Coverage is 100%
• The witness is imported as the versified edition
• Stage 6a is skipped — no translation is generated
• The witness still gets a validation pass (checked for empty segments, reference integrity, completeness) via /versify try-witness

When the fast path fails

• No versification-candidate exists, OR
• All candidates fail automated versification
• Stage 6a runs normally — generate a fresh translation with adversarial review
• Then Stage 6b validates and imports the generated translation

What this means for this skill

• This skill's run command is only invoked when the fast path has already failed
• All generation requirements, adversarial review, and quality standards still apply
• The fast path does not change how generation works — it only determines whether generation happens at all

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Generation Requirements

The generated translation MUST be:

1. Structure-preserving: exactly one English segment per Greek segment (verse, sentence, or unit)
2. Faithful: accurate to the Greek meaning, segment-by-segment — no paraphrasing across boundaries
3. Learner-readable: clear, natural English that helps learners understand what the text says
4. Consistent: recurring Greek terms get consistent English equivalents where reasonable
5. Labeled: output includes model name, timestamp, and witness translator used for comparison

The generated translation MUST NOT:

• Rearrange clauses across segment boundaries
• Merge or split segments
• Add explanatory content not in the Greek
• Be presented as a historical/literary translation

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Adversarial Review

Every generated translation batch is reviewed against PD witness translations.

Review checks

1. MISTRANSLATION: meaning that differs from the Greek
2. HALLUCINATION: content added that is not in the Greek
3. OMISSION: Greek content that was dropped
4. CLAUSE REARRANGEMENT: significant reordering away from Greek structure
5. TERM INCONSISTENCY: same Greek word translated differently without reason

Review output

Each review produces a JSON object:

{
  "verdict": "pass" | "fail",
  "issues": [
    {
      "reference": "2.3",
      "type": "mistranslation",
      "description": "...",
      "suggested_fix": "..."
    }
  ],
  "notes": "..."
}

Handling review failures

• Issues are logged but translations are kept (human review will catch serious problems)
• High issue counts should trigger re-examination
• Critical mistranslations should be fixed before proceeding to Stage 6b

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Workflows

/translation-synthesis run

Generate or regenerate the verse-aligned translation.

Prerequisites

• Stage 5 complete: at least one PD witness available for adversarial comparison
• Greek edition segments exist in the database
• Workspace has witness information (if using canonical workspace)

Execution

Using the generation script directly

# Preview chapter 1 without saving
python3 scripts/generate_translation.py --text <text_key> --chapter 1 --preview

# Generate specific chapter
python3 scripts/generate_translation.py --text <text_key> --chapter 1

# Generate all chapters
python3 scripts/generate_translation.py --text <text_key> --all

# Resume from a specific chapter
python3 scripts/generate_translation.py --text <text_key> --all --start-chapter 15

Execution modes

• --mode api: Uses ANTHROPIC_API_KEY to call the Anthropic API directly (faster)
• --mode agent: Spawns pi subprocesses (no API key required, slower)
• Auto-detection: uses API mode if key is available, otherwise agent mode

Adding new texts

Currently generate_translation.py requires text configuration in its TEXT_CONFIG dict. To add a new text:

1. Add entry with greek_edition_id, english_edition_id (witness), work URN, generated URN
2. Run generation
3. Optionally use --import to import directly to DB

Output location

$LYCEUM_TEXTS_DIR/<slug>/versification/
├── chapter_01.json
├── chapter_02.json
└── ...

Chapter file format

{
  "chapter": 1,
  "generated_at": "2026-03-15T04:44:15.458022+00:00",
  "model": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
  "witness": "Bernadotte Perrin (1919)",
  "segments": [
    {"reference": "1.1", "translation": "..."},
    {"reference": "1.2", "translation": "..."}
  ],
  "reviews": [
    {"verdict": "pass", "issues": [], "notes": "..."}
  ]
}

---

/translation-synthesis review

Re-run adversarial review on existing generated translations.

Useful when:

• New/better PD witnesses have been gathered
• Review prompts have been improved
• Issues from initial review need re-examination

Steps

1. Load existing chapter files from versification/
2. Load current PD witness(es)
3. Re-run review prompts
4. Update review sections in chapter files
5. Report aggregate pass/fail/issue counts

---

/translation-synthesis status

Summarize current state.

Report includes

• Chapters generated vs total expected
• Review verdicts (pass/fail counts)
• Issue breakdown by type
• Outstanding high-severity issues
• Readiness for Stage 6b (versify)

SQL helpers

-- Count Greek segments by chapter
SELECT 
  CAST(SUBSTR(reference, 1, INSTR(reference, '.') - 1) AS INTEGER) as chapter,
  COUNT(*) as segments
FROM segments 
WHERE edition_id = <greek_edition_id>
GROUP BY chapter;

-- Count generated segments
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM segments WHERE edition_id = <generated_edition_id>;

---

Important Rules

Generation is skipped only via the fast path

Do NOT skip translation synthesis for ad-hoc reasons like:

• "The existing Perrin/Murray/Long translation is good enough"
• "This text already has verse numbers"
• "It's biblical so we can use KJV/ASV"

The only legitimate way to skip Stage 6a is via the witness versification fast path (/versify try-witness), which requires:

• A witness explicitly classified as versification-candidate in the Stage 5 catalog
• Automated versification succeeding with 100% coverage and 1:1 mapping
• The orchestrator confirming the fast path result before skipping generation

If the fast path was not attempted or did not succeed, generation MUST run.

Per-chapter isolation

• Process one chapter at a time
• Never mix segments from different chapters in a batch
• Save after each chapter to enable resume

Labeling

All output must be clearly labeled as generated:

• generated_at timestamp
• model name
• witness used for comparison
• URN includes "generated" marker (e.g., ...generated-eng1)

Rate limiting

When using API mode, include delays between batches to avoid rate limits.

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Lessons Learned

Why generation is the default (and the fast path is an exception)

1. Pope's Iliad cannot be forced into line-level 1:1 alignment — too literary, wrong structure
2. Townsend's Aesop is too loose for reliable verse alignment
3. Murray's Homer requires range-based fallback with imperfect coverage
4. Long's Meditations required elaborate DP mapping with hand-verified tables
5. Even "verse-aligned" biblical texts have numbering variations

Generating a structure-preserving translation eliminates all alignment-mode classification effort for the majority of texts.

When the fast path works (and why it exists)

Some texts have PD translations that are already naturally 1:1 with the Greek:

• NT witnesses (ASV, KJV) share the same verse numbering as the Greek — despite occasional variations, automated versification can handle these when the match rate is high enough
• Scholarly literal translations of segmented texts (e.g., Perrin's Plutarch with section markers) may already align structurally
• The fast path exists to avoid expensive LLM generation when a perfectly good literal PD translation already has the right structure

The key insight: the old problems (Pope, Townsend, Murray, Long) were caused by trying to force-align unsuitable witnesses. The fast path only attempts versification on witnesses that Stage 5 has explicitly classified as versification-candidate — witnesses that are literal, reference-aligned, and structurally compatible.

What makes a good witness for comparison

• Literal scholarly translations catch more errors
• Multiple witnesses increase confidence
• Literary/idiomatic translations may miss structural issues
• Witness doesn't need to be aligned — just readable for comparison

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Verification Contract

This skill follows the Stage 6a contract.

Verify

• Generated translation has one segment per Greek segment
• Adversarial review was performed against at least one PD witness
• No cross-chapter contamination
• Model/timestamp metadata is present
• Issues are documented (even if verdict is "pass")

Minimum evidence

• Chapter files under versification/
• Each chapter file has segments and reviews
• generated_at, model, and witness fields present

Pass criteria

• 100% structural coverage: every Greek segment has a generated translation
• Adversarial review completed for all chapters
• No unresolved critical mistranslations blocking Stage 6b
• Output is labeled as generated

Failure examples

• Generated translation hallucinates content not in the Greek
• Adversarial review was skipped
• Segments are merged or split relative to Greek structure
• Chapter files missing review data

Next steps after pass

• Proceed to /versify run <work> for structural validation and DB import

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Verification

After completing this stage, run the automated verification script:

bash scripts/verify_stage_6a.sh "${SLUG}"

Exit codes: 0=PASS (advance), 1=FAIL (block), 2=WARN (advance with notes). The orchestrator runs this automatically; when executing manually, check the output for [FAIL] or [WARN] lines.

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Key Files

File	Purpose
scripts/generate_translation.py	Core generation script
$LYCEUM_TEXTS_DIR/<slug>/versification/	Generated chapter files
.pi/skills/versify/SKILL.md	Stage 6b (validation/import)
.pi/skills/translation-witness/SKILL.md	Stage 5 (witness collection)
docs/text-pipeline-master-plan-2026-03-13.md	Pipeline architecture