A translator who takes on a long series keeps a notebook: who is who, what each place is called, which invented words were kept, who says tu and who says vous to whom. Publishers call it a series bible. Without one, volume 4 contradicts volume 1, and nobody notices before a reader does.
When the translation is assisted by a language model, the bible is no longer a personal aid: it is the only memory the translation has. The model forgets everything between two passages. What is not written in the bible does not exist for it.
Here is what a translation series bible should contain, and how Libris Translate builds and maintains it.
Characters: one sheet per person, not per name
For each character, a translation bible needs more than a name:
- the canonical name and every alias, title or nickname;
- pronouns and gender, especially when the source language does not mark them;
- relations to the other characters;
- speech style and register, which decide how their lines are written;
- translation notes: a pun in the name, a name that must stay foreign.
In Libris Translate, the analysis of each volume proposes these sheets; you correct them and validate them. In a series, the Identities tab gathers the sheets of every volume. When two volumes created two sheets for one person, “Merge…” groups them; “Split…” separates a sheet that mixes two people. Each of these decisions is recorded in the series log.
Places and terms: a glossary shared by every volume
Places, institutions, titles, invented objects and words: everything that must be translated the same way everywhere goes into a glossary, as a source term and its translation.
A series in Libris Translate has its own glossary. Terms accepted there apply to every following volume, unless a volume explicitly keeps its own translation; “Volume overrides” lists those exceptions. When several series share one universe, a shared glossary can be followed by all of them.
When a term exists at several levels, precedence runs from the book to the series to the shared glossary. A locked term of a broader level still beats an unlocked term the analysis proposed for one volume; a decision a person took for a volume or for the series always wins.
If a published translation of the earlier volumes exists, do not retype it. Libris Translate imports glossaries as JSON, CSV or TBX with a preview before anything is saved, and can draw terms from a TMX file or from a book and its published translation.
Style: decided once for the series
Some choices are neither names nor terms but still have to hold across volumes: narrative tense, informal or formal address, what to do with honorifics, dialogue typography, register, profanity.
The style sheet of a series sets them for every volume. A volume shows “Inherited from the series” until you set a field for that volume only, for example a volume narrated by a child. Under “Who says tu, who says vous”, each pair of characters whose form of address differs from the general rule gets its own line.
Order: a volume only knows what came before
A series bible has one trap specific to translation: it knows the ending. If volume 3 is translated with everything the series will reveal in volume 5, the translation can give the twist away through a pronoun, a title or a relation.
In Libris Translate, a volume only receives the memory of the volumes that precede it in reading order, which the volume numbers set. Checking that order in the Volumes tab is therefore part of building the bible.
Audit the bible, not only the translation
The bible drifts as the volumes add up: a term translated two ways, one character with two genders. The Consistency tab of a series compares what is stored for each volume (glossaries, identities, genders, style sheets and translated passages) and lists Contradictions and points To look at. The audit calls no model, so it costs nothing to run again. When a finding can be aligned, “Apply to the whole series” does it, and leaves alone the volumes that made an explicit decision.
Where to start
Start with the first volume: analyse it, correct its characters and its glossary, set the style sheet at series level. Then add the following volumes in order. The bible grows with the series, and each decision you take is one the model never has to guess again.
To go further: Series and volumes, Series consistency, Style sheet and Use an existing translation.