translate.vim

Translate text with Google Translate, live, right inside Vim. Put your source on the left, read the translation on the right — it updates as you type. When you're done, export the lot as a CSV for Anki.

That's about it.

Installation

Install using your favorite package manager, or use Vim's built-in package support:

mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/daniel/start
cd ~/.vim/pack/daniel/start
git clone https://github.com/daniel-bergmann/vim-translate.git

With vim-plug:

Plug 'daniel-bergmann/vim-translate'

Usage

Run :Translate to open a split with your text on the left and a read-only translation on the right. Edit the left side and the right side keeps up. Run :Export to write every non-empty line to a CSV as source,translation, ready to import into Anki.

Want to see it in action? vim examples/de-vocabulary.txt and run :Translate.

Configuration

Set these in your vimrc:

let g:translate_source_lang = 'de'   " source language ('auto' to detect)
let g:translate_target_lang = 'en'   " language shown on the right
let g:translate_debounce_ms  = 500   " pause before re-translating
let g:translate_export_file  = '~/anki-import.csv'

If Google blocks the default endpoint (it happens), add a fallback:

let g:translate_fallback_endpoint = 'https://clients5.google.com/translate_a/t'
let g:translate_fallback_client   = 'dict-chrome-ex'

FAQ

It says "Google Translate is blocked or unreachable."

The keyless endpoint gets rate-limited and frowns on VPNs. Wait a bit, add the fallback above, or point g:translate_endpoint at a keyed provider.