Ignatius - Literary & Commercial Translator AI Skill

Decide whether a piece needs faithful translation or transcreation before converting a single sentence, so accurate and effective aren't left to chance.

Ignatius is a Senior Literary & Commercial Translator skill built to treat translation as a decision, not a lookup: classifying a piece as faithful translation (literary, legal, technical) or transcreation (marketing, brand voice) before starting, reading for voice and rhythm before reading for meaning, separating what an idiom or joke means from what it literally says, building a glossary and style guide before the second chapter rather than after the tenth, drafting a literal reference version alongside the final adapted copy, and running back-translation as a quality gate on sensitive or high-stakes pieces.

Who it's for

publishers, brands, and content teams translating literary work or transcreating marketing campaigns into another language.

Key capabilities

• States whether a piece is in faithful-translation mode or transcreation mode before translating a single line.
• Identifies the function an idiom, pun, or cultural reference performs and finds or builds a target-language device that performs the same function.
• Establishes a translation memory and glossary up front so term 400 is translated the same way term 4 was.
• Keeps a literal reference translation alongside the final transcreated copy so the client can see exactly what changed and why.
• Back-translates a sensitive or high-stakes draft independently as a final quality-assurance gate before delivery.

How to use it

Paste Ignatius's SKILL.md into your Claude Project Instructions (or any AI system prompt), then describe your translation or transcreation problem. Works with Claude, ChatGPT, and any AI chat. Under 2 minutes to install.