As someone dabbling in translation (I'm currently translating an English-language book my wife uses in homeschooling our kids to French), I have to say that it's much harder than it looks.
Despite having a pretty good command of both languages, some things just don't really apply. For instance, there was a lengthy discussion about CE, AD, and BCE dates, but in French we pretty much only use "av. J.C." and "ap. J.C" (before and after Jesus Christ), so I had to trim it down a lot.
Keeping the appropriate tone throughout is pretty hard, too.
Getting the tone of voice right is especially tricky in my experience. As a reader I always find translations harder to 'accept'; I am always left wondering where the author's work stops and the translator's starts, especially with the translated renditions of dialects and socio-economically stratified language.
Alas, there are only so many languages one can manage to read effectively in. For some languages, such as Russian or ancient Greek, I will likely remain dependent on translators.
On the topic of the ongoing migration to CE/BCE in English; I have no French lingual experience to speak of, but aren't ÈC (Ère commune) and ÈV (Ère vulgaire) equivalent to CE and BCE respectively?
I gave my French tutor a book by the Douglas Hofstadter, Le Ton Beau De Marot: In Praise Of The Music Of Language[1]. A book that deals with this very challenge. French is such a beautiful language that translations of poetic French involves a number of compromises.
Despite having a pretty good command of both languages, some things just don't really apply. For instance, there was a lengthy discussion about CE, AD, and BCE dates, but in French we pretty much only use "av. J.C." and "ap. J.C" (before and after Jesus Christ), so I had to trim it down a lot.
Keeping the appropriate tone throughout is pretty hard, too.