Translate Chapters

Translate raw Chinese chapters into polished English following all rules in CLAUDE.md.

Arguments

• •$ARGUMENTS should specify the novel folder name and chapter range
• •Examples: /translate after-villain-lies-low 98-102, /translate "No Daughter of Luck Shall Be Spared!" 294
• •If no arguments given, ask the user which novel and chapter(s) to translate

Workflow

1. Setup

• •Load and parse translation_glossary.csv completely
• •Filter to entries relevant to this novel (matching Novel column + entries with empty Novel column for universal terms)
• •Identify the novel's folder in raw/ and translated/
• •Read translated/<novel>/metadata.json to check existing chapter titles and find where translation left off

2. Identify Chapters

• •Parse the chapter range from arguments (e.g., "98-102" = chapters 98 through 102, "294" = single chapter)
• •Locate matching raw files in raw/<novel>/ by chapter number prefix (format: NNN_[title].txt)
• •If a chapter is already translated (file exists in translated/<novel>/), warn the user and skip unless they confirm overwrite

3. Translate Each Chapter

For each chapter in order:

• •Read the raw Chinese text from raw/<novel>/NNN_[title].txt
• •Translate the full chapter following all CLAUDE.md rules:
  • •Reference glossary for every recurring term, name, location, technique
  • •Natural English priority — it should read like it was written in English
  • •Match tone to scene type (formal cultivation, action, comedy, casual)
  • •Convert all measurements to imperial, all time units to hours/minutes, all currency to USD context
  • •Translate meaningful proper nouns (sect names, locations) per CLAUDE.md guidelines
  • •Keep character names in Pinyin
• •Save the translation to translated/<novel>/chapterN.txt (content only, no title in file)
• •Extract a natural English chapter title from the Chinese title (or from content context)

4. After EACH Chapter (not at the end of a batch)

• •Update metadata.json: Add the chapter number and English title to chapter_titles
• •Update glossary: Append any new terms encountered to translation_glossary.csv with proper categorization:
  code

  Chinese,English,Category,Novel,Notes
  新术语,New Term,technique,Novel Name Here,Optional description
  

• •Use the novel's short name in the Novel column (match existing entries for that novel)

5. Summary Report

After all chapters are complete, output:

## Translation Summary
- Novel: [name]
- Chapters translated: [range]
- Word count: ~[total] words
- New glossary terms added: [count]
  - [Chinese] -> [English] (category)
  - ...
- Flagged issues: [any inconsistencies, ambiguous terms, or questions]

Important Rules

• •NEVER leave Chinese characters untranslated in the output (unless intentional for effect)
• •NEVER guess a glossary term — look it up every time
• •ALWAYS save after each chapter (don't batch saves — a crash loses everything)
• •ALWAYS update metadata.json and glossary after each chapter, not at the end
• •If a raw chapter file is missing, report it and continue with the next chapter
• •Match the existing chapter numbering in metadata.json (don't create gaps)