Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a shoemaker specializing in the sale of mended footwear.

1690		‘Teague’ Teagueland Jests I 114: Going [...] by the Door of a Translators Stall, [he asked] I predee , Shweet Joy [...] wilt dee not put a heel-pieshe upon the Toe of mine Shoon.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Translators Sellers of old Shoes and Boots, between Shoe-makers and Coblers.
1700		T. Brown Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 73: The cobbler is affronted, if you don’t call him Mr. Translator.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1764		Low-life 65: Botching Taylors and Journeymen-Translators.
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1803		Sporting Mag. Aug. XXII 278/2: Your friend Jonas Sewell, translator of shoes.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 384: *Translator of Soles — A disciple of St. Crispin, alias a cobbler, who can botch up old shoes, so as to have the appearance of being almost new, and who is principally engaged in his laudable occupation by the second-hand shoe-sellers of Field Lane, Turn Stile, &c. for the purpose of turning an honest penny, i.e. to deceive their purchasers.
1824		J. Wight Mornings in Bow St. 265: Here she carries on a thriving trade in the ‘translating line,’ that is to say, she employs sundry ingenious craftsmen in translating old shoes into new ones.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 134/2: Translators, sellers of old boots and shoes.
1848		Paul Pry 13 Nov. n.p.: We advise little, undersized Pr—h—d, the translator of soles, alias the Lushy Snob, alias Tom Tit, to attend to his own business.
1850		Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 July 3/2: The better half of a translator of soles.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 111: translator a man who deals in old shoes or clothes, and refits them for cheap wear.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 198/2: I’m a translator (a species of cobbler) by trade.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1882		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 4 Aug. 7/3: He was forcibly laid across the kitchen table and with a strip of sole leather, the ‘translator’ gave him such a ‘tanning’ as he would not forget in a hurry.

2. second-hand shoes that have been rebuilt by the shoemaker and then resold.

1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 111: translators second-hand boots mended and polished, and sold at a low price. Monmouth street, Seven Dials, is a great market for translators.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 51/2: He will part with everything rather than his boots, and to wear a pair of second-hand ones, or ‘translators’ [...] is felt as bitter degradation.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
[1869		Sportsman (London) 27 Feb. 4/1: Notes on News [...] [B]oots which he knows he only acquired [...] at third hand. It be a long jump from ‘translated boots’ to vamped up books of travel.].
1873		Sl. Dict.

3. a specialist in the re-use of second-hand garments, e.g. by cannibalizing parts into a new garment.

1865

Hobart Mercury (Tas.) 8 Feb. 3/4: Those [old clothes] that are intended to remain in this country have to be tutored and transformed. The ‘clobberer,’ the ‘reviver,’ and the ‘translator’ lay hands upon them. [...] The ‘translator’s’ duty is o [...] to transform one garment into another the skirts of a cast-off coat being the least worn part of the garment make capital waistcoats and tunics for children, &c.

4. (Aus. und.) a forger.

1895

Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 88: Translators, alterers of signatures.