How to Cite a Translated Quote: An MLA Source Check
How do you cite a translated quotation?
Cite the translation you actually used, keeping its translator and publication details attached to the passage. In MLA style, distinguish a published translation from a translation you made yourself. Record the quotation's location in the consulted edition, then check that your reference leads readers to that version. Before polishing punctuation, answer a simpler question: whose English wording are you presenting, and where can someone find it?
This guide concerns MLA citation practice. Follow your publication's or instructor's assigned style. It does not evaluate translation quality or decide permission to reproduce a passage.
Which version supplied the wording?
Begin with the book or document you read, rather than an attractive quotation copied elsewhere. Set the passage beside that edition's title and publication information. Our suggested working note has separate spaces for the work's author, the translator, the edition and the particular passage.
Keep uncertainties visible. "Translator not yet identified" is a useful research status. A familiar name supplied from memory is not an improvement. Use the broader quote-verification guide when the original attribution or context still needs checking.
If a website names a translation but you have not consulted it, record that distinction in your notes. Do not silently convert a secondhand reference into a book you personally checked.
Where does the translator appear in MLA?
Purdue OWL's translated-book guidance gives an author-led entry when the work is the emphasis, adding the translator after the title. It also describes a translator-led alternative when translation is central to the discussion. Choose according to the focus of your writing, not which name fits a shorter caption.
Here is an invented author-led entry for practice. Every name, title, publisher and date in it is fictional:
Voss, Lena. The Orchard Window. Translated by Mira Lane, Cedar Window Press, 2020.
The entry models a whole book. It is not a universal template for a translated poem inside an anthology, an online article or a translator's introduction. Identify the kind of source before applying its citation format.
What if you translated the passage yourself?
The MLA Style Center's current guidance generally calls for my trans. in the parenthetical citation when you supply the translation. It also lists exceptions: an uncomplicated single word or brief phrase, a nonquotation term, prose that already makes your translating role clear, and your translation of a title rather than a published translated title.
Do not label every foreign-language word mechanically. Conversely, do not present your own extended rendering as a published translator's wording. A citation identifies responsibility; it does not certify the rendering's accuracy. Have uncertain language checked before relying on it.
Can you keep two editions from becoming one citation?
Try this original record-matching exercise. Both cards, including their page numbers and wording, are fictional. They illustrate source tracking, not competing translations of a real passage.
| Working card | Recorded edition | Passage location | Opening words recorded |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Mira Lane translation, 2020 | Page 26 | "The gate remained open" |
| B | Rowan Bell translation, 2024 | Page 41 | "The entrance was still open" |
Suppose your draft contains Card B's wording, while the bibliography contains Card A's translator and publication year. The record does not match. Return to the consulted source and correct the connection; do not keep the more convenient page number.
The exercise's answer is Card B for that draft wording. It says nothing about which imagined translation is better. If you want to discuss both, preserve both records and make each reference identifiable. Do not assemble one quotation from the opening of one card and the remainder of another.
For edition comparisons, MLA describes using bracketed publication years in citations. It also offers a note identifying a primary edition, with another edition distinguished when needed. This is a documented option for that situation; consult the guide for your exact combination of sources.
Does each quotation have the right locator?
MLA's page-citation example favors identifying which page supplies each quotation rather than attaching one ambiguous range to several excerpts. Apply that precision to your source record: the location belongs to the wording you actually used.
In our fictional exercise, page 26 and page 41 are not interchangeable addresses. If you change the selected passage, recheck the locator at the same time. A tidy bibliography cannot compensate for a reference that sends the reader to the wrong place.
What should your final check retain?
Read the quotation, its introduction and its reference as one unit. Ask whether the reader can tell which work is involved, which version supplied the words and which part of that version to inspect. Mark anything still unconfirmed for follow-up instead of declaring the citation finished.
Keep your checked wording beside its citation in a commonplace book. If you later shorten the passage, preserve the full record and use the separate quotation-editing guide for omissions. Version selection, accurate copying and responsible editing are related checks; completing one does not complete the others.