What is the editing term for a section of text in a translation which was already in the target language and therefore has not been translated?

Solution 1:

Dale - there is no such common or abbreviated term for this situation.

Suggest:

Use "from the original" or "verbatim form the original" or "verbatim translation as seen in the original document" or "this section was presented, as seen here, in English, in the original document. All errors and idiocyncracies have been reproduced here verbatim." or "Quoted as such by the original text".

There are huge differences between an original passage that was ("originally") translated to English (perhaps by Google - whatever), and just an actual passage somehow from English (ie, "quoted by" the original author - NOT translated by that author) .. and so on.

Suggest just have to exactly spell it out -- in answer to your question there's no such common abbreviation/term for that situation. (Note too there are so many variants.)

Solution 2:

You could say that the translated sections in the original text are pre-translated segments, a term used by many translators (usually when talking about machine translation). If they are poorly translated, you could just make a note and specify that you did not translate them.

As for your second question, you could say something like, "given the lack of context, a literal translation was the only option."

I hope this helps.