There are now 7 different texts being translated. In addition to the 4 we had (Dialogue between Joe. Smith and the devil!, Angel of the Prairies, Added Upon and History of the Church), we have added James E. Talmage’s The Great Apostasy, The Lectures on Faith and the King Follett Discourse. In the next few weeks we will add an additional 7 titles: Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage; The Journal of Discourses; Articles of Faith by James E. Talmage; Essentials in Church History by Joseph Fielding Smith; Gospel Doctrine by Joseph F. Smith; A Marvelous Work and a Wonder by LeGrand Richards; and Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations by Lucy Mack Smith.

The website now has more than 1000 pages ready to be translated into all 10 languages available.

Have you looked at the Norwegian translations on the 50 Important Mormon Books list?

I don’t have a full list compiled yet, but I know there are other translations out there also.

I agree that bilingual editions are very useful. I’ve published a couple myself, I have another in preparation, and I may have a series of them on the way (none LDS at this point).

But, in general, there aren’t as many consumers that want bilingual editions as want straight translations, at least not in the US or in the areas I know well (Portugal and Brazil).

But, as I told Bookslinger in comment 24, I’d be willing to give it a try. Send me a note (kent [at] motleyvision [dot] org) and I’d love to hear more about how you think this would work.

There are a few details I’d quibble with on their site (the choice of material for the “On this Day in Church History” section is boring — how many new stakes formations or new mission formations need to be listed?), but overall its helpful, especially because its also in Spanish and Portuguese.

But more to our point here, I don’t see much of an indication of which works are on the way, how they are funded or run the site or how anyone else can participate. And how many of the works they are doing are truly important? They are unquestionably of historical value, but I don’t know if they are really important works that need to be at the top of the list.

Its great to have works translated. Its better to have important works translated. Its even better to have a system set up that will help more works be translated in the future. And, most importantly, its best to also have a system that gets wide distribution of important works. I’m not sure that depending on the Internet as the only way that works will be distributed is a good policy.

I hope that doesn’t sound overly critical of Woodland Institute’s efforts. I’m glad they are doing what they are doing. I’m just trying to place that effort in the broader context.

http://catalog.bbt.info/d_show_book.php?id=1&target_language=English

The wonderful thing about this book is that it takes it passage by passage, showing the original Sanskrit, then the transliteration of the Sanskrit to roman characters, then word by word definitions of each Sanskrit word, then a translation of the entire passage. By studying this book it’s possible to learn Sanskrit and have access to all the other Sanskrit works that are not yet translated. I think this is a great model to follow for The Book of Mormon and other standard works written in English.

I wish someone would carry out that sort of translation of important works in other languages into English, which is unfortunately the only language I read well. I’d love to see Homer done that way, the Bible, the Qu’ran, the Tao te Ching, the Analects of Confucious, etc. as well as Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Jorge Luis Borges, Madame Bovary, Faust, The Canterbury Tales, etc. That way people would be motivated and find it possible to just learn the original languages when reading great works of scripture and literature, instead of having to be dependent upon translations forever.

http://www.woodlandinstitute.com/english.php

The contacts page gives Richard N. Holzapfel as the director. That’s all I know, and it’s been a useful resource.

The information about the more recent editions is very valuable, and I’m very happy to learn about Mosterdzaad. I will certainly add that information to my data. That’s amazing for a language with perhaps 8,500 church members (say 3,000 active?). Its really quite incredible!

Do you think it would be helpful to have a forum where these issues are discussed on an ongoing basis? I started a yahoogroup, LDS Books International Distribution thinking that this might be a good idea. What do you think?