: Re: For nonfiction books, do you translate or transliterate names, brands, etc. that aren't in a Romanized language? For nonfiction book translations where the target language does not use the Roman

@Ravi5107385

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My rule of thumb is not to translate proper nouns unless the translation is already in common use in the target language. For example, it's fine to call Tolstoy's book to "War and Peace" since everyone knows it by that title, but if I started referring to Rio de Janeiro as January River, people would be confused.

Applying this to your case, use a common transliteration if one exists, otherwise stick with the Romanized foreign name and provide a parenthetical translation for clarity as well as to satisfy curiosity.

EDIT: Beyond the above, let common sense guide you. A lot of the time this will come down to style and aesthetics. Sometimes the translation is awkward and so you might prefer the original. And in fiction, you can get a little playful and creative with transliterating with parallel metaphors and suchlike.

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