Good translations expose literal and contextual choices

Technical translation does not require full fluency because standardized engineering forms make many documents easier to approach. A smooth modern translation becomes suspect when it resolves ambiguities that remain visible in the source language. Good editions print the chosen wording while footnoting the literal construction and the contextual reason for departing from it. This lets readers evaluate interpretation instead of mistaking it for a word-for-word rendering. Without that transparency, translation can hide the uncertainty a historian needs to assess.